The Buffel is considered by many to be the first true MRAP.
This description from FlickR seems best...
The Buffel is a mine-protected APC used by the South African Army
during the South African Border War. It was certainly not the most
comfortable vehicle, but it offered the necessary protection against
mine attack. The Buffel was also used as an armoured fighting vehicle
and proved itself in this role. It has been replaced by the Mamba in
South Africa, but remains in use elsewhere, notably Sri Lanka.
Many view these vehicles as ugly but I disagree. The minimalist design approach appeals.
i dont care if they "look" ugly, if it protects those people inside than thats all that matters, its not about how it looks, does it get those troops home to their families is the only question i care about and S. Africa seems to be well in front of curve, very cool.
ReplyDeleteThe South African experience is an interesting one. Their clear distinction between high intensity operations, requiring conventional military forces, and high mobility operations, requiring units to cover very large areas with a comparatively small number of troops (which has led them to mine resistant wheeled vehicles like the Ratel and the Rooikat)is a great contrast to our eternal confusion about light vs. medium vs. heavy forces and what does it all mean.
ReplyDeletewow. i read their experience differently. i see the divide between high intensity COIN requiring high mobility for conventional forces....COIN/Special Ops requiring special operations to operate not only deep into the enemies territory but also along the entire battlefield and conventional operations.
ReplyDeleteto be a bit clearer...COIN/Special Ops was required for the majority of the conflict with outside forces (not going anywhere near aparthied) and then high mobility COIN ops were required when terrorist forces and conventional forces from the enemy merged and tried to surge.
Look a documentary on YouTube called the Last Domino, its about the SA experience in Namibia and Angola, lots of footage of these kinds of vehicles including a short section on how they were used as school buses!
ReplyDeleteSpec ops is its own little world, but I interpreted "high mobility" a little differently. This is an interesting list of characteristics of high mobility ops that actually comes from a Rooikat marketing blurb:
ReplyDelete-- a large space-to-troop ratio;
-- the near-impossibility of holding fixed lines of defence;
-- the terrain, which is suitable for (mechanised) manoeuvre; and
-- the possibility of having to fight while outnumbered.
None of this precludes clashes up to company level and even higher (see #4) but the point is that larger clashes are transitory with non-geographic objectives and first require an unusual level of concentration. The contrast is of course with set piece battles, usually over a piece of terrain or a city that characterize high intensity battles.
Arguably A-stan, Iraq 2 after the occupation and Vietnam (OK except for mech mobility) all seem to fit the High Mobility scenario while Korea, Iraq 1 and the initial phase of Iraq 2 all seem to fit the high intensity model.
This has pushed the South Africans toward an set of vehicle characteristics that can include:
-- long range and often built in water tankage to enable extended operations with small logistical tails
-- mine resistance, since spread out troops with no fixed front lines will be exposed to a lot of mine attacks
-- a lot of local firepower since support is often far away. Compare a Ratel and a Rooikat to MRAPs.
-- Wheeled vehicles not just because they are cheaper and easier to build but also because they can cover very long distances with less support than tracked vehicles