Armor: Word of Mouth

Archives

December 1, 2007: The Czech Republic is sending a contingent of civil affairs troops to Afghanistan and were in the market for appropriate vehicles. The American offered them twenty armored hummers, but the Czechs asked around, and NATO troops who had already been there suggested the Dingo 2 and MLV. So the Czechs bought four of each.

Officially called a "mine protected vehicle," the Dingo 2 is basically an armored truck that is bullet proof and explosion resistant. This vehicle is a commercial Mercedes-Benz UNIMOG 4x4 truck with an armored body. With armor, it weighs 11-12 tons and normally carries a driver and four passengers (although as many as seven people can squeeze in), plus about two tons of cargo. The Dingo 2 is roughly similar in size and capability to an armored hummer, but much heavier. The German Dingo is armed with a remote control (from inside the vehicle) 7.62mm machine-gun. Israel, Austria and Israel have also ordered Dingo 2s, which cost about half a million dollars each.

The Italian LMV is a 6.5 ton armored vehicle similar to the hummer, but with many anti-mine and bomb features (V shaped bottom, suspended seats and so on). It seats five and is designed to accommodate a remote control gun turret.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close