Andy Smith
Mine action specialist
 
Real Mine Protected Vehicles - MPVs
 

I am surprised to find that there are a dozen pictures of real MPVs on this site, most of which have already been used in this section. I have brought a few more together here.

This is the way an MPV should look after detonating an AT mine (the vehicle is an RG31).

One wheel missing and the passenger and driver area uncompromised....

Here is a high V-hull on the classic Pookie. Wheels were way in front and behind, as well as out to the side. I am told that there were several AT blasts under wheels and no serious driver injuries.

This was one of the Pookie's stablemates - an early design made in Zimbabwe when it was still Rhodesia. This one was still being used by the Zimbabwe army in 2008.

Carrying detector arrays on MPVs makes a lot of sense.... The KIMS, now named the WADS on a Rhino MPV.

Any genuinely Mine Protected Vehicles suitable for use as transportation in Humanitarian Demining will probably have been developed as a personnel carrier for bush-warfare in Africa. Other combat vehicles, such as tanks, have very limited utility in another role (cannot carry many people) and the threat mines were designed to destroy/disable them. If an MPV was not made in Southern Africa, it will copy the design rules pioneered there. Copies of African vehicles made in other countries (such as the US made Cougar) will be far more expensive, and probably far less robust for protracted use in the harsh environments common to Humanitarian Demining.

With the classic CASSPIR shown below, note the high stand-off, v-hull, frangible axles, sacrificial mudguards, small areas of armoured glass, etc, etc ….

Note also the fact that they are still around - 40 years later! But remember, these are very big, very heavy, very expensive to run and, as the Indian army discovered, even with Mercedes engines they cannot reliably climb mountain roads in hot weather.

Return to Introducing demining.

HOME