The main armoured steel body of the vehicle is raised high above the ground, so when a mine is detonated, the explosion is less likely to damage the crew compartment and kill the occupants.

[1] The name 'Casspir' is an anagram of the abbreviations of the customer, the South African Police, and the design authority, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR – Applied Chemistry Unit that later became MECHEM).

[2] Although the Casspir was deployed in townships during the apartheid era, it was initially designed specifically for conditions encountered in the South African Border War.

It was at first extensively used by the infamous "Koevoet" police counterinsurgency unit in northern Namibia during the apartheid era and later also by the South-West Africa Territorial Force's 101 Battalion and the SA Army's 5 Reconnaissance Regiment.

The Casspir has a V-bottomed armoured monocoque hull, designed to deflect the force of an explosion outwards, to which a leaf-spring suspension is attached.

[2] After two years of field testing, the South African Police were eventually satisfied they had a good vehicle and in March 1980 placed an order for an initial 140 Casspirs.

[22] A beadwork Casspir, with Ndebele designs, outside the Iziko South African National Gallery was installed as a representation of this iconography of the vehicle.