Not-A-Pundit: The Renaissance

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–The U.S. is rushing to the battlefront vehicles specially designed to defeat roadside bombs, many of them made by Force Protection Industries (GRPT), USA Today reported Tuesday.

The Pentagon said the number of the South Carolina-based company’s Buffalo and Cougar V-shaped vehicles in Iraq is classified, but public records show the military has bought almost 300, the newspaper reported. The Buffalo vehicles cost $750,000 apiece, about five times the cost of an armored Humvee, USA Today reported.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Armed Services Committee, pushed the Pentagon to buy the Buffalo and Cougar, the newspaper reported.

The vehicles’ V-shaped hull disperses the force of an explosion and helps keep the vehicle from flipping over, the company maintains, the newspaper reported.

The Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization is spending nearly $3.5 billion this year to combat roadside bombs, known as improved explosive devices.

Force Protection said nobody inside a Buffalo has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan despite encountering thousands of IED blasts, USA Today reported.

Other companies marketing V-shaped vehicles include AM General, the maker of the Humvee. That vehicle is made by Otokar, a Turkish company. Also, Oshkosh Truck (OSK) has joined with ADI of Australia to market the Bushmaster armored vehicle, and Blackwater, a private security firm, has developed the Grizzly, which it will send to Iraq soon, USA Today reported.