GURKHA was designed by Armet Armored Vehicles from Canada. Magna International Inc. purchased all designes and global intellectual property rights of the Gurkha vehicles from Armet in August 2011. The Gurkha, in three configurations, is now manufactured by Terradyne Armored Vehicles Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Magna.

The GURKHA has a typical SUV configuration of four side doors and a single rear cargo-crew exit door and carries a total crew complement of up to eight persons.

Mounted on the Ford F550 chassis, repair and spare parts are available throughout the worldwide Ford Motor Company.

The GURKHA may be armored to the NATO STANAG 4569 level 3 which exceeds the CEN European B7 armor level.

With its hollow cavity walls filled with blast protective materials, the side armor provides excellent protection against side load IEDs. In addition to its frontal armor, the firewall is a second armored wall that further protects the driver and front passenger from a frontal attack.

As well as the foregoing, the floor is protected from blast and even with this superior armored protection, the payload after armoring is still in excess of 2,041kg (4,500lbs).