It was announced yesterday that the Marine Corps had ordered 15 additional Cougar Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal Rapid Response Vehicles (JERRV) from Force Protection Inc. in a contract worth $9.4 million. In November of 2006, the Marine Corps ordered 200 Cougars to augment a total force of 300 already operating in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Cougar is a 12 ton mine protected armored patrol vehicle that has been used extensively to counter the IED threat in Iraq. Since the vehicle was first deployed in 2003, not a single soldier or Marine has been killed while patrolling in a Cougar, despite more than 1,000 IED attacks on the vehicles. Here’s a note from one Marine who was patrolling the streets of Iraq in a Cougar when it was hit by an IED: