Date Published: June 29, 2006   

Bound for Iraq, two enormous Army vehicles stop off in Manhattan

By RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press Writer

It was a sight that slowed traffic - even in Manhattan.

Two of the U.S. military's monster anti-mine vehicles rumbled into Midtown on Wednesday, muscling for space amid busy sidewalks, hustling yellow taxis and uniformed doormen.

The two desert-tan trucks are on their way to war duty in Iraq and were recently used for training cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in upstate New York.

The scene attracted a sizable crowd of curious passers-by and tourists, especially when officials manipulated the giant claw-arm of one of vehicles, a 23-ton behemoth known as the Buffalo.

The Buffalo and its smaller cousin, the 19-ton Cougar, are equipped for various tasks but primarily for the most dangerous job in Iraq - finding and neutralizing the roadside bombs that are the principal weapon of insurgents.

Most IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, are fashioned from artillery shells and other explosives and concealed in innocent-looking trash heaps or other hidden spots, then triggered by remote control as military convoys pass by.

The Buffalos and Cougars, in use for nearly three years in Afghanistan and Iraq, have provided one good answer to the problem, absorbing more than 1,000 IED explosions without any fatal casualties, said Michael Aldrich, a vice president of Force Protection Industries, Inc., the Ladson, S.C., company that builds them in collaboration with Spartan Motors, Inc., of Charlotte, Mich.

John Sztykiel, president of Spartan Motors, said the mine-clearing vehicles were designed for "mobility and survivability," meaning they protect their occupants and can keeping moving even if they lose one of their three axles.

Their huge tires are of a "run flat" design that also allows damaged vehicles to be quickly repaired, company officials said.

Aldrich took the wheel of the Buffalo for a quick demonstration of its ease of handling, lifting and lowering the derrick-like arm, then driving the vehicle half a block to Fifth Avenue and deftly backing it up to the same parking space.

Dozens of workers and pedestrians gawked, cab drivers groused at the delay, and tourists produced digital cameras to record the scene. But as Aldrich parked the monster truck, two men at a window table in the restaurant of the posh St. Regis Hotel never looked up from their early lunch.

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