LADON, S.C., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Marine Corps has ordered 125 Cougar and Buffalo vehicles from Force Dynamics, LLC.
The vehicles were ordered as part of the USMC's MRAP, or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, vehicle program.
The Cougar and Buffalo vehicles will be delivered to the U.S. Marines within the next three months for use by all branches of the military.
The contract, worth $67.4 million, is part of a program that will equip the military with 4,100 of the heavily armored trucks that are better capable of standing up to mines, roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. Force Dynamics said in a news release that the vehicles have "withstood more than 2,000 IED and mine attacks" since arriving in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003.
The vehicles, based on a South African design and built in South Carolina, are used primarily by bomb-disposal teams and are also capable of other transport missions in dicey territory.
Force Dynamics was formed as a joint venture by General Dynamics to provide vehicles for the MRAP program, which has a total value of about $2 billion.
"This joint venture was formed precisely for this purpose: to mobilize quickly on any action item announced by the Marines as the MRAP program moves forward," said Force Protection COO Raymond Pollard. "With advanced proprietary vehicle designs and significant manufacturing capacity, Force Dynamics has the capability to make an immediate and strategically important impact on the war on terror."
