The Cheetah MMPV (

Medium Mine Protected Vehicle The Medium Mine Protected Vehicle (MMPV) is a class of armored vehicles being procured by the US Army, similar to the MRAP program, which is being pursued by the US Army and the US Marine Corps. The Army's MMPV executive summary states: "The Mediu ...

) was a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

built by the Force Protection, Inc., division of

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

. It was intended as part of Force Protection's armoured military vehicle line-up, which includes the

MRAP Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP; ) is a term for United States Armed Forces, United States military light tactical vehicles produced as part of the MRAP program that are designed specifically to withstand improvised explosive device (IE ...

-class of Buffalo and

Cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

vehicles and the

Ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

light protected patrol vehicle (LPPV). Its design was based on the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n RG-31 Charger class of light-armored vehicle, intended as a reconnaissance, forward command and control, and urban operations vehicle for homeland security missions. No contracts were procured for the Cheetah MMPV, and production ended in 2008 after 13 prototypes had been manufactured.

Specifications

Transfer case A transfer case is a part of the drivetrain of four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and other multiple powered axle vehicles. The transfer case transfers power from the transmission to the front and rear axles by means of drive shafts. It also syn ...

Marmon-Herrington The Marmon-Herrington Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of axles and transfer cases for trucks and other vehicles. Earlier, the company built military vehicles and some tanks during World War II, and until the late 1950s or early 1960s wa ...

2 Speed with 4X4 or optional ADM *Wheels: Hutchinson aluminum two-piece CTIS ready *Tires:

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

XZL run flat tires 365/80R20 *Electrical System: 24 V *

Approach angle Approach angle is the maximum angle of a ramp onto which a vehicle can climb from a horizontal plane without interference. It is defined as the angle between the ground and the line drawn between the front tire and the lowest-hanging part of the ...

: 45° *Departure angle: 45° *

Turning radius The turning diameter of a vehicle is the minimum diameter (or "width") of available space required for that vehicle to make a circular turn (i.e. U-turn). The term thus refers to a theoretical minimal circle in which for example an aeroplane, a ...

: 27’ *Gradient: 60% *Side Slope: 30% *Fording Depth: 48" *

Center of Gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...

: 35"

Production history

The Cheetah never went into full production. In early 2007, Force Protection stated that full production could begin in July 2007, but did not proceed after the May 2007 announcement that the

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

had ordered 1200 of the rival

International MaxxPro The International M1224 MaxxPro MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle is an armored fighting vehicle designed by American company Navistar International's subsidiary Navistar Defense along with the Israeli Plasan Sasa, who designed and m ...

vehicles. At the same time Force Protection received an order for 14 of the larger MRAP Category III Buffalo. Cheetah was submitted to the

Joint Light Tactical Vehicle The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is a United States military (specifically U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps) and United States Special Operations Command program to partially replace the Humvee fleet with a family of more survivable vehicle ...

(JLTV) competition but was officially rejected from the program in August 2008. The JLTV program settled on the

Oshkosh L-ATV The Oshkosh L-ATV (Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle) is a light utility/combat multi-role vehicle that won the US military's Army-led Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program. In the very early stages of the program it was suggested t ...

in August 2015.

Sources

Cheetah MMPV Technical Data Sheet and Pictures to Army Recognition
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military engineering vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s Wheeled armoured personnel carriers

Specifications

Production history

See also

Sources