The State October 15, 2006
Iraq war helps rev up sales of Force Protection vehicles
By Noelle Phillips
For more than six years, Force Protection Inc. tried to sell the U.S. military armored vehicles designed to survive land mine blasts.
But the Army was leery of buying into another bulky, multimillion dollar piece of machinery.
Then, after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, troops began dying because of roadside bombs in Iraq — and suddenly Force Protection had something the Army wanted.
“If you want to clean up this type of menace, you need a vehicle like this,” said Michael Aldrich, Force Protection’s vice president of marketing and government relations.
This year, he said, the company is on track to reach $200 million in sales — up from $10 million two years ago.
The company built just 11 of its Buffalo mine-clearing vehicles in 2003, Aldrich said. Now, it builds 15 in a month and has added two other models — the Cougar and the Cheetah.
In October, the company will be named one of the state’s fastest-growing companies by Elliott Davis accounting firm and the S.C. Chamber of Commerce.
Force Protection was started in San Diego in 1996 as Sonic Jet. The company struggled, Aldrich said, and its owners decided they would do better on the East Coast and closer to Washington D.C., where spending decisions are made.
They changed the company’s name and moved to Ladson, near Charleston Air Force Base in 1997.
Originally, the founders thought they could sell the hulking Buffalo because so many countries around the world are littered with land mines — the remnants of 60-year-old Cold War defenses and countless civil wars.
The fully-loaded, 80,000-pound Buffalo — the weight of five backhoes — is recognizable for the long arm attached to its front that ends in a claw nastier than those found on Wolverine, the X-Men comic book hero.
But sales didn’t take off.
Even after the United States went to war in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, the military was slow to order Force Protection’s vehicles.
John Pike, executive director of the military information database GlobalSecurity.org, said the military was reluctant to spend money on machines it might not need in the long run.
“They thought initially we weren’t going to be in Iraq that long, and we didn’t want to get stuck with this big pile of vehicles,” Pike said.
Plus, the Buffalo and Cougar — a troop transport — are extremely heavy and difficult to transport. They also get poor gas mileage; the Buffalo ranges about 7 miles per gallon while the Cougar gets about 9.
As the wars dragged on, Pike said, the military became more willing to plunk down money for Buffalo and Cougar.
“These vehicles are outstanding in the context of Iraq,” he said.
Thus far, no American troops have died while riding in a Force Protection vehicle in Iraq or Afghanistan, Aldrich said.
The key to survival is an undercarriage with a V-shaped hull — rather than a flat surface — that absorbs mine blasts.
There is no room for error in manufacturing, Aldrich said. Every hull is carefully inspected for weak spots.
“If there are any bubbles in the weld at all,” he said, “the blast will find it.”
The company also makes Buffaloes and Cougars extremely heavy so they do not flip.
“Once a vehicle flips, you suppress spinal cords and snap necks,” Aldrich said.
In Ladson, Force Protection has found a pool of nuclear-certified welders — left over from the Navy’s operations in Charleston — to make its vehicles.
Still, Aldrich said, the company can’t build Buffaloes and Cougars fast enough.
As a result, it now works with larger defense companies such as BAE Systems to build its vehicles faster. Force Protection retains control over the design, Aldrich said, but other companies build them.
Force Protection works with more than a dozen South Carolina-based companies to build the vehicles and its contracts with those companies total about $16 million, said Jeff Child, a company spokesman.
Once Buffaloes and Cougars roll off the production line at Force Protection’s Ladson facility, they go straight to combat zones. They are loaded onto ships at PortCharleston or put on C-17 cargo planes at Charleston Air Force Base.
“We sometimes refer to it as herding Buffaloes,” Aldrich said. “They come off our production line, are driven eight miles down the road, put on C-17s, and two days later it’s in the war zone.”
Now that Buffaloes and Cougars have proven themselves in combat, Pike said, the military is taking a closer look. The Navy and Marine Corps are developing their own versions.
The big decision is whether the vehicles will continue to serve in specialized roles or if they eventually can replace Humvees as the vehicle of choice for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If the latter happens, Pike said, Force Protection stands to make even more money.
© Copyright 2006, The State
