Specialist South African demining and antilandmine technology company Mechem, part of the State-owned Denel defence industrial group, as part of the expansion of its activities, has gone back to the mine-protected vehicles business.

“Our business has expanded exponentially over the past decade,” points out Mechem CEO Ashley Williams. “Part of this is our return to the vehicles business. We remanufacture vehicles that were originally designed by Mechem, especially for peacekeepers and mainly in Africa. But we have also supplied vehicles into Iraq, not for the American forces, but for people rebuilding the infrastructure in that country.”

The main vehicle being offered in remanufactured form is the venerable Casspir, which Mechem is now having produced in the form of the Casspir Mk III (with an Mk IV version under development). “The Casspir was designed in the days when Mechem was still the Applied Chemistry Unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),” he points out. “The name Casspir is actually an anagram of SAP – South African Police – and CSIR, combined. So Mechem has the trademark and the design authority for the Casspir.”

With demand growing again for mine- (as well as ballistics-) protected vehicles, and from many quarters, the company realised that there were quite a large number of Casspirs still in exis- tence in South Africa. These were vehicles that had served in the South African National Defence Force and its predecessor, the South African Defence Force, and in the South African Police Service and its precedecessor, the SAP, but which were now surplus to requirements.

“We started with a programme of having these remanufactured. This basically means that we strip a Casspir right down, until we have just the hull. The hull is then sandblasted. And it is then built up with new components, producing what is almost a new vehicle,” explains Williams. “It is just the hull of the old vehicle that is reused.” At present, the actual remanu- facturing is subcontracted out by Mechem – “mainly to one contractor that we’ve worked with quite closely”.

So far, just over 100 Casspirs have been remanufactured and sold, most of them going to forces involved in peacekeeping in Africa, particularly in high-threat areas, like Darfur, in Sudan, and Somalia. “There is still a growing market for the Casspir,” he reports. “The Casspir is a very simple vehicle, and it works. So you will find that countries donating money and supporting peacekeeping in Africa specifically want Casspirs, because it is a vehicle that is very easy to maintain in the field and, because it is so simple, there is nothing that can really go wrong. And want does go wrong, your local mechanic can normally fix quite easily.”

All Casspirs are 4 × 4 vehicles, and many of the design principles and features found in today’s mine-resistant and ambush-protected vehicles (better known as Mraps) were pioneered by the Casspir. The Casspir Mk III can be supplied in four variants. The Casspir armoured personnel carrier can carry a crew of two plus 12 troops. There is also the Casspir command vehicle and the Casspir recovery vehicle. The fourth version, the Casspir-S, has a shorter enclosed cabin and an open load bed at the rear, allowing it to serve as a logistics vehicle.

The remanufactured Casspirs are all fitted with turbocharged diesel engines and have heavy-duty leaf-spring suspensions with heavy-duty double-action shock absorbers. Check straps restrict the maximum axle movement permitted by the suspension system.

Originally, Casspirs were armed with roof- and/or front-mounted light machine guns, but Mechem’s remanufactured vehicles are supplied unarmed, as their role is conceived to be more humanitarian than combatant.