US and Coalition forces in Iraq found themselves fighting an intense Counter-Insurgency Operation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. US Military doctrine of the time did not allocate armoured vehicles for "behind the wire" operations and only used unarmoured HMMWVs and trucks for patrolling and transport in the supposedly safe areas. The insurgents began to use mines and Improvised Explosive Devices, which they were able to use to strike almost anywhere. Rising casualties resulted in an urgent program to add armour packages to trucks and the introduction of new armoured HMMWVs. The armoured HMMWVs were never entirely successful due to their vulnerability to "under belly blasts". The US DoD went looking for a solution to the problem. It was decided that it would be easier to purchase an off the shelf solution rather than go through designing and developing a new vehicle. 30 years previously, the South African and former Rhodesian Security Forces had faced a similar mine problem and had developed a solution, the concept of the V shaped hull. This directed the blast outwards and away from the vehicle thus protecting the occupants. One of the first vehicles to be obtained for testing was the RG-31.
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