The Buffel (English: ''Buffalo'') is an infantry mobility vehicle used by the South African Defence Force during the South African Border War. The Buffel was also used as an armoured fighting vehicle and proved itself in this role. It replaced the older

Bedford RL The Bedford RL was the British military's main medium lorry, built by Bedford from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s. The lorry was based on the civilian Bedford S type, first introduced in 1950. They superseded the Bedford QL, and were in tu ...

-based

Hippo APC The Hippo is a South African armoured personnel carrier. Specially designed to be mine resistant, it can carry ten infantrymen and a crew of two. The vehicle's remote-operated turret mounts dual 7.62mm machine guns, but like other improvised f ...

and itself was replaced by the

Mamba Mambas are fast moving highly venomous snakes of the genus ''Dendroaspis'' (which literally means "tree Asp (reptile), asp") in the family Elapidae. Four Neontology, extant species are recognised currently; three of those four species are essen ...

from 1995 in South Africa, but remains in use elsewhere, notably Sri Lanka.

Production history

The Buffel was the first truly effective landmine-protected armored personnel carrier to enter service anywhere. The South African Army began deploying it in the operational area from 1978. The Buffel was an improvement over the Bosvark which offered little protection to the driver. In 1974, 54 Mercedes-Benz Unimog 416-162

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

had been hastily converted into Bosvarks by 61 Base Workshops in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. The Bosvark offered limited landmine protection to the crew, but compensated for this with good off-road mobility. It is estimated that around 2,400 Buffels were delivered before production stopped. Sri Lanka purchased Buffels in the 1980s, and in the early 1990s the vehicle was exported to Uganda. The Buffel (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

for ''Buffalo'') was not a wholly South African built vehicle, but made use of the chassis, engine and some other components of the

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

U416-162 Unimog, which were fitted with a domestically designed armoured driver's cab and separate armoured troop compartment. The cab was situated on the left with the engine compartment on the right. Later models replaced the original Mercedes-Benz OM352 engine with copies built under license by Atlantis Diesel Engines factory near

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. Land mine protection was provided by the V-shaped hull underneath these compartments, which quite effectively deflected the blast. The troop compartment contained two plastic tanks in the vee beneath the floor: a 200-litre fuel tank and a 100-litre water tank. The water tank provided drinking water to the occupants by means of a tap at the rear of the vehicle. In order to help dissipate the energy from hitting a mine, the large tyres were sometimes filled with water, adding about 500 kg per wheel to the vehicle weight.

Variants

SAA variants

*Buffel - original *Buffel Mk 1 - Improved engine and bushguard/bumper *Buffel Mk 1B - Disc brakes replaced drum brakes *Log Buffel - Logistic/Cargo version, a standard Buffel with the seat assembly removed from the troop compartment *Buffel Mk IIA - Essentially a rebuild of earlier Mk 1s with an enclosed troop compartment, a rear exit door and large bulletproof windows on the sides and rear. Referred to as Moffel. *Buffel Mk IIB - Cargo carrier. The SA Army ordered 57 of these in the early 1980s. Payload capacity stated as 2.637 tons. SAAF variants Twinbuffels

*Bulldog - based on SAMIL 20 truck with the driver's cab on the right. The Bulldog was utilized by the SAAF for patrolling airfields. A variant called the '' Ystervark'' was produced and used in the anti-aircraft role. *Rhino - A further development of the Bulldog but with the driver seated inside a fully enclosed troop compartment. 20 were produced for the SAAF. Sri Lankan variants *

Unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

- Sri Lanka Army produced version of the Buffel original. Sri Lanka Military 0204

* Unibuffel - Sri Lanka Army produced version of the Mk I and Mk II with Tata and Leyland engine and an enclosed troop compartment. Unibuffel Mk II of the Sri Lankan Army

Operators

Current operators

*: 1; ''Rhino'' variant. *: 47; other variants produced as the Unicorn and Unibuffel. *: 55; 20 in service with the army and 35 in service with the national police. * United Nations Mission in South Sudan: 3 *: 1; ''Rhino'' variant. * United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali; nine Unibuffels were deployed to Mail under urgent operational requirements for peacekeeping operations in Mali.

Former operators

*: Formerly around 2,400 in service; all retired and replaced by the

. *

United Nations Transition Assistance Group The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Na ...

: 1 *: Possibly inherited from

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

Combat history

Rhodesian Bush War The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe-Rhodesia). The conflict pitted three for ...

* Angolan Civil War * South African Border War *

Second Congo War The Second Congo War,, group=lower-alpha also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War and sometimes referred to as the African World War, began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998, little more than a year a ...

* Sri Lankan Civil War

References

External sources/Bibliography

Video footage - Buffel

Video - The South African Buffel & How an MRAP Works

Buffel Mine-protected APC/ video footage
* Jane's Land Warfare Platforms 2014/2015: Logistics, Support & Unmanned

* Jane's Land Warfare Platforms 2015-2016: Logistics, Support & Unmanned * Jane's Military Vehicles & Logistics 2004-2005

{{MRAP vehicles Armoured personnel carriers of South Africa Vehicles introduced in 1978 Military vehicles introduced in the 1970s Armoured personnel carriers of the Cold War Cold War military equipment of South Africa