Germany has restarted production of the Buffel, the armored recovery vehicle based on the Leopard-2 tank chassis. The Germans originally built 75 for themselves and 25 for the Dutch Army, but now have orders for 14 for Sweden, 4 for Spain (which will build 12 more under license), and 25 for Switzerland. All of those countries use the Leopard-2. Other countries which use it (Austria, Denmark, and Norway) are reportedly interested in a few Buffels of their own. (French and South Korean armored recovery vehicles use the Buffel's systems on their own tank chassis.) Buffel has a crane, two winches, a dozer blade, a 7.62mm machinegun, several smoke grenade launchers, and a built in NBC-defense system. It uses a new hull on the Leopard drive train.--Stephen V Cole