[archy]

The IED Manhattan Project is a joke, ripe with corruption.

Your example doesn't prove your point. I first met Ionatron about 30 minutes after they walked out of the DEP SEC DEF's office and 35 minutes after we got a call from same telling us we needed to look at their wonderful technology. We did. It sucked. We said so. So Ionatron turned to the press and to politicians who are more than happy to give them money for their bug zapper.

Any thoughts about the forthcoming *Joint services EOD vehicle*? Presumably they're going with a variant of the Force Protection Inc. 6x6 *Buffalo* MPCV

Oh yeah, EOD *redfenders* ping: Fireinthehole!

Army 2nd Lt. David Swisher, a platoon leader with the 612th Engineer Battalion, points out damage from an improvised-explosive-device detonation on the side of a “mine protective clearance vehicle,” or MPCV, which the soldiers call a Buffalo. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, center, and Army Col. Jim Brooks, commander of 3rd Infantry Division’s Maneuver-Enhancement Brigade, look on durng the secretary's April 12 visit to Iraq.
Photo by Kathleen T. Rhem

[centurion316]

Buffalo is getting very high marks from troops in theater. They can't get enough of them. Production line is currently running at the max and every one is going directly into theater. Training centers and FORSCOM not happy - they want some to drive counter IED training at the CTC's.

That said - its a special purpose vehicle, used by Engineers for deliberate route clearance. Its too big for some mission sets, and is not a general purpose vehicle for maneuver units. It is close to being #1 on the Al Qaida target list- they don't like it so very much.