The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle or Infantry Mobility Vehicle is an Australian-built wheeled armoured vehicle. It was originally designed by Perry Engineering in Adelaide with some technical support from Irish company Timoney Technology Ltd. The prototype, the basic design and the tender were acquired by Thales Australia, as Perry Engineering considered it non-core business. Once the Bushmaster was selected by the Australian Army after trials in 1998 to meet the Bushranger project requirements, the range of variants was developed further by Thales Australia in Bendigo. Oshkosh Truck has a contract to provide support and would manufacture in the US if there was an American order. The Bushmaster is currently in service with the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Netherlands Army and British Army.
The Bushmaster are of great value in this province in Southern Afghanistan, because its reinforced lower hull protects them against mines and IEDs. The Ministry of Defence will pay for the additional Bushmasters from the 80 million euro budget that had been earmarked for the counter-IED taskforce. Sniffer dogs and a flexible laboratory in Uruzgan have been already added to the anti-IED resources.
The extra Bushmasters are additional to the ones ordered in June 2008, some of which have been lost or damaged by attacks. It is the intention of the MoD that Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan will receive the new vehicles by April 1.
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