140 More Mastiffs for the UK

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Oct 8/07 that Britain will buy another 140 blast-resistant Mastiff vehicles for use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MoD intends to finalize the deal for this additional set vehicles "in the next few weeks," and has set aside GBP 100 million (about $200 million) for this purpose. MoD release.

This order would bring the total number of Mastiffs ordered to 248, with additional buys of blast-resistant vehicles scheduled via Britian's MPPV program.

Mastiffs are derived from Force Protection's popular "Cougar" blast-resistant vehicles, which serve with the US military. Variants of the Cougar also serve with or have been ordered for the militaries of Iraq (ILAV 'Badger'), Canada (reportedly similar to the 'Mastiff' design), and Yemen (ILAV). For British Mastiff orders, NP Aerospace in Coventry integrates and up-armors delivered Cougars to create the finished Mastiff vehicle.

Source : DID