We have been transporting valuable goods or people for centuries, caravans travelling the silk road, stagecoaches crossing the American west, and the movement of Kings, Queens and Presidents. And, since the beginning, there has always existed the need to protect those goods and people in opposition to forces determined to steal or harm the cargo. The technology employed to attack and defend ground transportation of valuables is ever evolving. The first armored vehicle was envisioned by Leonardo DaVinci in 1485 in a sketch as a circular wheeled platform with light canons arranged around the circumference. The first armored vehicle built to transport valuables in North America was a stagecoach fitted with a steel plated exterior built by the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company circa 1870.
Despite this advance, looters found a way to defeat it resulting in one of the largest stagecoach robberies. Rolls-Royce introduced the first armored vehicle for personnel transport in 1914 leading to Mercedes Benz’s development of the Nurburg 460 used to protect Pope Pius XI in 1930.