Next time you are in the market for a golf cart, try looking for these standard features: A secure open storage space for golf clubs, a ball washer, LED headlights, bullet-proof windows, bullet-proof armor and a gun mount capable of handling a 7.62X5 FN Mag-type light duty machine gun.
Meet the Yagu.
Strictly speaking, the latest tactical light-duty military version of the Arctic Cat Wildcat vehicle, outfitted by Plasan, an Israeli company, is not a golf cart, so much as it is a modified carryall. But it is within the same overall category of light, agile vehicles with off-road capabilities that has been outfitted for either military or law enforcement deployment.
When it was unveiled in Mexico City at the Seguridad 2018 expedition in April, Plasan touted the vehicle as tough enough for military duty, but agile enough to make it extremely valuable for law enforcement duties in off-road terrain, which was a not so veiled description of drug traffic enforcement, especially along lengthy, remote international borders, online magazine The Drive pointed out. After all, when in choosing to unveil an armor-outfitted carryall with a 95 HP engine that can transport three officers to a remote location quickly, Mexico would seem to be a logical choice, given that country’s constant need to upgrade border patrol capacity to keep up with the bad guys.
Could you imagine a light-weight carryall serving the country in Iraq and Afghanistan? Apparently, the U.S. Marine Corps is not enamored with their current line up of MRZRs, which are a larger version of the Yagu, the name Plasan gave to its beefed up Wildcat.
The MRZRs do not have bullet-proof armor, which gave rise to an anonymous quote from a Marine concerning the MRZR who described them as well suited for “noncombat” assignments. “But getting a foot outside the wire in Iraq took an act of God, so tactical golf cars wouldn’t cut it,” the Marine said.
If you like the way the Yagu sounds, don’t forget, when shopping around for your next golf cart, to ask for alternate two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive engagement systems. It gets pretty muddy on a local golf course and if the course has an improvised driving range in the middle of it, like mine does, that bullet-proof armor might be pretty handy as well.
