After being built, the first vehicle was only trialed by doing some circuits of the company campus and trundling over a few rocks and beams set up by the designer to provide a degree of shake-down testing as well as a demonstration course. Urgent operational requirements dictated that the first unit be shipped to the theatre as fast as possible and those involved in the project decided that the risk of doing so was outweighed by the advantages of having the vehicle available. The Cougar was fully trialed when it became part of the MRAP program.