From the UK Guardian:
Here is the latest example of American military badassery.It became the symbol of half a dozen US military interventions – a vehicle instantly recognisable across the globe, and as popular with the US military (if not with the actual soldiers) as with Islamic State, who stole 2,300 of them in Iraq during the fall of Mosul in 2014.
Now the US Department of Defense has announced the beginning of the end for the ubiquitous Humvee, awarding a $6.7bn contract to replace it to the Wisconsin firm Oshkosh.
As the Sherman tank was indelibly associated with the second world war, the Humvee bracketed a period of US interventionism that began with the invasion to topple Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989 and will end in the chaos of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oshkosh beat a team made up of Lockheed Martin Corp and Britain’s BAE Systems, as well as AM General, the privately owned company that built the original Humvees, for a deal that could be worth $30bn over time.
The US plans to buy a total of 55,000 of the Oshkosh’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs, to start replacing the current combined fleet of about 140,000 Humvees. The makers claim the new vehicles will be more nimble and better protected than their 30-year-old predecessors.
5 comments:
It's not a beauty contest (thank God), so I'd have to know more. I'd prefer to drive each, if I don't think that is happening any time soon. If you noticed, they are replacing 140,000 with 55,000. That kind of downsizing doesn't bode well for the men and whoever else they are paying to drive them though. It isn't always in what they say, it's in the math. And the math ain't on this things side.
The Humvee wasn't designed for the job that we handed it. Naturally a more adapted/evolved vehicle is called for. The Humvees have been driven hard with somewhere around double the weight intended with the up-armor mods (made in the field in large part).
However, having driven my share through brush, etc. those fancy wing windows on the front of the Oshkosh will last just about a day before they're scraped off by trees or rocks.
Every plan goes out the window when the first shot is fired. Hope this vehicle's occupants survive the first engagements.
Guess we'll have to trust American ingenuity and small unit initiative to fix the issues as they arise.
I hope they save some lives and limbs.
Again, 3000 Liberty ships built for the 4 years of WWII, and we couldn't get MRAPS to the ME in 10 years of IED war?
Said to say, our manufacturing capability is a former shadow of what it was. We are no longer the arsenal of democracy. We are the convenience store of illegal immigrants.
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