Go Cougars!

To many of us here at home a Humvee has always embodied American military posture. From war-torn Kosovo to the deserts of Kuwait, Humvee is a global extension of the American way. So powerful a symbol, GM has even adopted most design specs of this sturdy military transporter to a consumer-friendly "Hummer". But for those who ride the real thing in Iraq, the term "Humvee" has become synonymous with lost lives, limbs, and testicles.

The bloody carnage of the Iraqi urban warfare is largely the result of Improvised Explosive Device or IED attacks. Caught in the midst of a raging sectarian war, over eighty percent of US casualties in Iraq are troops killed by IED blasts. This data comes straight from the Pentagon, further explaining that 250,000 tons of looted Iraqi munitions provide insurgents with a steady supply of raw material for making these devices.

In exceedingly violent Iraqi areas like Diyala and Ramadi the often romantic image of a Humvee is shattered time and again as it offers virtually no protection against deadly roadside ambushes. And although High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or "Humvee") was designed to perform support functions behind the front lines, thousands of these cheap, low maintenance trucks are currently used in combat.

A quite company parking lot in South Carolina seems distant from the ravages of war. There, towering over everything else, sits a massive 6X6 Cougar Urban Fighting Vehicle. Manufactured by Force Protection Industries in Charleston, SC, Cougar Series transports come in 4X4 and 6X6 twelve passenger variants, measuring 23ft 3in in length and 9ft vertically. That makes Cougar far more superior to HMMWV in both size and weight.

However, Cougar's most unique quality is its heavily reinforced V-shaped base, designed to deflect deadly IED bursts that warp and obliterate lighter, smaller Humvees. In his interview with Times Online, Mike Aldrich, a former artillery officer and present Force Protection vice-president proudly said that "since late 2004 until today there have been over 1,000 IED explosions against this vehicle without a single fatality".