http://www.military-today.com/engineering/buffel.htm The Bergepanzer 3 Buffel (Buffalo) armored recovery vehicle was developed by Rheinmetall. It is based on the Leopard 2 chassis and is fitted with powerful recovery system. With introduction of the Leopard 2 main battle tank in 1979 it appeared that the previous Bergepanzer 2A2, based on the Leopard 1 MBT chassis, was not powerful enough to support the new main battle tank. A development program for a new armored recovery vehicle was launched. The first prototypes of the Bergepanzer 3 were completed in 1988. Deliveries of the new ARV commenced in the early 90s.