SA vehicles save lives in Iraq

2005-04-19 11:42

Johannesburg - US Army and Marine personnel in Iraq are increasingly staking their lives on South African-designed armoured vehicles, British defence publication Defence Systems Daily reports.

Officially, the South African-acquired device is called the "mine protective clearance vehicle", or MPCV.

"But we just call it the Buffalo," said Army 2nd Lieutenant David Swisher, a platoon leader with the 612th Engineer Battalion.

The US military does not have enough explosive ordnance disposal experts to be able to check every suspicious object.

On patrol, the engineers scan the sides of roads for anything suspicious. Iraqi insurgents have become adept at disguising roadside bombs - improvised explosive devices (IED) in military parlance - in harmless-looking items.

When something catches a soldier's eye as suspicious, the patrol will call in the Buffalo to "interrogate" the item.

Highly successful

"It goes up there, gets a bird's-eye view of the situation and confirms or denies whether an IED is at that location or not," Swisher explained to Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld during a briefing on April 12.

Rumsfeld was in Iraq to meet local leaders and visit US troops.

The 612th has had good success in finding and disarming IEDs in the three months the unit has been deployed here.

As of the date of Rumsfeld's visit, soldiers of the 612th have identified 75 IEDs, and Swisher's platoon found a "vehicle-concealed IED".

The unit also has found 16 pieces of unexploded ordnance and 16 "deliberate fakes".

Army Colonel Jim Brooks, commander of 3rd Infantry Division's Manoeuvre-Enhancement Brigade, explained that insurgents often plant fake IEDs to study how the coalition forces respond.

"They're watching our techniques is what we think they're doing, or trying to delay us while they do something down the road at another point," Brooks said.

Sometimes the deliberate fakes even sport real initiators or blasting caps, Swisher noted.

Bombs disguised as 'normal items'

"(The insurgents) see how we react on site, and they learn what we scan and sometimes to see if we even notice," he said.

Swisher showed Rumsfeld some photos of IEDs disguised as normal items that his platoon had discovered. He described one item found in a traffic island as "big inner tube with a bulge".

When the Buffalo interrogated, or examined the item, it was found to have "a remote-controlled initiation device, a long-range radio similar to a Motorola, a motorcycle battery to juice up the charge, an on-off switch, and a washing machine-type failsafe hooked up to a blasting cap".

All this was connected to two 125mm artillery shells, Swisher said.

During another patrol, Swisher's platoon found a cement bag that was "unusually bulged in the centre", he said.

"It was very windy that day, so the bag should have been floating around," Swisher explained. "The claw reached out, ripped the bag open and found a 125mm projectile remote-controlled device."

The platoon used the Buffalo to render the device safe for a bomb disposal team to come out and safely dispose of it.

The six-wheeled armoured Buffalo, based on the South African Casspir, saves lives because IEDs explode while they are being inspected about 10% of the time.

Extremely 'survivable'

The heavy vehicle has provided strong protection from such blasts, even at close range.

Swisher called the vehicle, which operates with a six-man crew, "extremely survivable".

"These vehicles have been hit several times - small-arms fire, grenades, artillery shells, you name it," he said.

"Everything's happened to these vehicles. Windows have been shattered but not compromised. Tyres have all been deflated, gouges in the armour, exhaust system replaced.

"And no one inside the Buffalo has ever been hurt," he added.

Brooks said soldiers are "extremely confident" in the protection the Buffalo provides. "The bottom line is ... they want to ride in this," he said. "And they want find the IEDs and protect their fellow soldiers.

- SAPA