V-shaped hull becoming standard for many years to come.

www.usatoday.com...

WASHINGTON — The military is rushing armored vehicles with specially designed hulls to Iraq and Afghanistan to limit the damage from roadside bombs, the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops.
The bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have killed or wounded thousands of troops and shredded conventional military vehicles. The new vehicles have a V-shaped hull, which disperses the force of an explosion and helps keep the vehicle from flipping over.

"It's just going to be the standard for any vehicle on the battlefield over the next 10 years," John Pike, a military analyst at GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Va., said of the V-shaped hull.

Not only are lives at stake, but also millions — and potentially billions — of dollars.

The Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization is spending nearly $3.5 billion this year to combat IEDs. Pentagon records show that since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, 1,074 troops have been killed and 11,513 others wounded by insurgent bombs.

A major Pentagon supplier of V-shaped vehicles is 9-year-old Force Protection of Ladson, S.C. The Pentagon says the number of the company's Buffalo and Cougar V-shaped vehicles in Iraq is classified, but public records show the military has bought almost 300. That compares with more than 35,000 Humvees, the military's main multipurpose vehicle, in Iraq. The Buffalo vehicles cost $750,000 apiece, about five times the cost of an armored Humvee, which is smaller.

Force Protection says nobody inside a Buffalo has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan despite encountering thousands of IED blasts.

Retired general Montgomery Meigs, head of the anti-IED organization, said the Buffalo's armor and shape make it "a lot more robust than the Humvee."

www.washingtonpost.com...

Here's a story about the bomb squad team using the vehicles of the Buffalo and the RG-31.











As you can see that the military as well as those around the world views that V-shaped hull as an important component in warfare when dealing with mines or IEDs. I do like the Gurka vehicle that should replaced the Humvee since it has a flat underside, no matter how much armor its got, it won't survive against IEDs, and I have seen pics and videos of humvees being blowned up. But as you have read about the information where soldiers and Marines have suffered few casualties when implementing this design. I don't know how long this design was in existence, but right now people are aware how successful this design is and defense companies are creating and producing the vehicles in the pics I posted up. I won't post every pic with a vehicle that has a V-shaped design, but I post some examples of the vehicles that has this capability.

Added more pics.


[edit on 31-10-2006 by deltaboy]

Bah, it is still for pussies when compared to Ultra Armored Patrol Vehicle.




ULTRA AP

You said "The Buffalo vehicles cost $750,000 apiece, about five times the cost of an armored Humvee, which is smaller."

You have to be kidding me...Where in the hell did you come up with that? Comparing the two is like comparing a F-22 with a Cessna. Better yet, it's like comparing a double-wide trailer with the Sears Tower.

Have you ever seen a side by side comparison? Here's a link that will blow your mind....www.forceprotection.net...

Check it out and come back and tell us what you think.

Zippy

reply to post by deltaboy


It's just pathetic how long it's taken the American military to get the message that a v-shaped hull is the only way to go. It's been known since at least the 70s from experience by the South African Army in the Angola campaigns that this is a superior design.

en.wikipedia.org...

No kidding. This is Ukrainian T-80 serving in Iraq right now.



Note the cheap slat instead of Drozd.

Here’s a good angle on the V shaped hull of the T-80;

www.fas.org...

Better slat set;

www.strategypage.com...

When equipped with Arena, slat is not needed.

reply to post by iskander


Ummm - that's a BTR, not a T-80 man. Not in the first two links you posted, and I can't open the last one.

Regards,
Maestro