The latest in land-mine-clearing technology, a six-wheel-drive monster truck dubbed "Buffalo," depends on precision laser cutting of special steel plate up to 16 mm (0.63 in.) thick.
The vehicles are assembled for the U.S. Army by Technical Solutions Group (TSG) in an 85,000-square-foot facility at a former shipyard in Charleston, S.C.
Eighty-one U.S. casualties resulted from land mine explosions during the first Gulf War, so last year, the Army ordered its first ten Buffalos for a combined price of $8.2 million. No one knows how many land mines and cluster bomblets still have to be cleared from the two Gulf Wars. Some existing mine fields in Iraq date back to World War II. Furthermore, it is estimated that more than ten million unexploded mines remain in Afganistan.
The Buffalo consists of a modified commercial tractor-trailer drive train with a monocoque capsule - a crew cabin in which the body provides all the structure. A robotic mine-clearing boom capable of detecting and disarming anti-tank mines extends from the vehicle.
The crew capsule is designed to provide 360-degree protection from small arms fire and blast protection from a double-stacked land mine, equivalent to 30 lb of TNT.
In order to provide this level of blast resistance, special steel plate must be cut, bent, punched, and drilled to exacting tolerances without altering the metallurgical characteristics of the armor.
The Buffalo's blast-proof monocoque capsule, which is fabricated from laser-cut steel plate, is mated with a Peterbilt drive train and chassis.
TSG sources its cut-to-size armor from its strategic partner, VR Steel in South Africa. VR Steel uses CO2 lasers to cut and drill steel plate up to 16 mm thick with very precise, repeatable cuts for the strong joints and overlaps required in the field of battle.
Powered by a 400-horsepower Peterbilt Caterpillar engine, the Buffalo can travel at speeds of 70 miles per hour to reach mine fields or sites with unexploded ordnance. Once on-site, steel wheels that can withstand blasts equivalent to 45 lb of TNT are mounted to the vehicle, and anti-personnel mines are detonated by running over them. According to TSG, a Buffalo cleared more than 1000 land mines from a mine field in Mozambique in just 40 minutes
Technical Solutions Group produces six other mine-protected models of various sizes, including remote-controlled vehicles, which also utilize laser-cut armor.
ROSS HANCOCK (rhancock@aws.org) is Associate Editor of the Welding Journal.
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Laser-Cut Armor Helps Protect Troops from Land Mines