Humvee Motor

[Nella Mcnairy]

TheHigh Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General.[14] It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the original jeep, and others such as the Vietnam War-era M151 Jeep, the M561 "Gama Goat", their M718A1 and M792 ambulance versions, the Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle, and other light trucks. Primarily used by the United States military, it is also used by numerous other countries and organizations and even in civilian adaptations.

The Humvee saw widespread use in the Gulf War of 1991, where it navigated the desert terrain; this usage helped to inspire civilian Hummer versions. The vehicle's original unarmored design was later seen to be inadequate, and was found to be particularly vulnerable to improvised explosive devices in the Iraq War. The U.S. hastily up-armored select models and replaced front-line units with the MRAP. Under the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program, in 2015 the U.S. Army selected the Oshkosh L-ATV to replace the vehicle in front-line U.S. military service.

The HMMWV program had its origins in the Combat Support Vehicle (CSV) program.[16] The XM966 CSV was a proposed platform for the TOW missile launcher.[17] Congress ended the program in 1977 due to the relatively small requirement of 3,800 vehicles. Adjusting to Congress's expectations, the Army increased the scale of the program, then called the XM966 High Mobility Weapons Carrier (CSVP), to replace multiple other trucks.[18] Congress, interested in a larger joint services truck program, removed the CSVP from the 1979 budget. The Army restructured the program, which was then called High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.[16]

In 1979, the U.S. Army released draft specifications for the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), which was to replace all U.S. Army tactical vehicles in the 1/4-ton to 5/4-ton range,[16][19] As well as select vehicles in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force.[20] Namely these were the M151 quarter-ton jeeps, M561 Gama Goats, and the CUCVs, as one uniform "jack-of-all-trades" light tactical vehicle series, to better perform the roles of the impractically mixed fleet of outdated existing vehicles.[7][unreliable source?] The specifications called for a diesel engine,[21] excellent on and off-road performance, the ability to carry a large payload, and improved survivability against indirect fire.[22] Compared to the jeep, it was larger and had a much wider track, with a 16 in (410 mm) ground clearance, double that of most sport-utility vehicles. The new truck was to climb a 60 percent incline and traverse a 40 percent slope and ford 5 ft (1.5 m) of water[23] and electronics waterproofed to drive through 2.5 ft (0.76 m) of water were specified. The radiator was to be mounted high, sloping over the engine on a forward-hinged hood.[citation needed]

The Teledyne HMMWV was based on the rear-engined XR311 Cheetah. Chrysler's HMMWV was based on the Expanded Mobility Truck. Chrysler Defense was sold mid-competition to General Dynamics Land Systems. The AM General HMMWV was developed as a private venture to meet the HMMWV requirement. The first prototype (a weapons carrier variant) was completed in August 1980 and sent to the Nevada Automotive Test Center for testing.[24] AM General nicknamed the prototypes it delivered for the Army competition "Hummer," which AM General had the foresight to trademark.[16]

The vehicles underwent testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland and Yuma, Arizona.[16] The vehicles were subjected to over 600,000 miles in trials which included off-road courses in desert and arctic conditions.[citation needed] On March 22, 1983, AM General was awarded the contract.[25][26] The vehicle's durability and light weight were factors that led to its selection.[16] AM General was awarded an initial contract for 2,334 vehicles, the first batch of a five-year contract that would see 55,000 vehicles delivered to the U.S. military, including 39,000 vehicles for the Army.[24] 72,000 vehicles had been delivered to the U.S. and foreign customers by the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and 100,000 had been delivered by the Humvee's 10th anniversary in 1995.[7] Ft. Lewis, Washington, and the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division was the testing unit to employ HMMWV in the new concept of a motorized division. Yakima Training Center, Washington, was the main testing grounds for HMMWVs from 1985 through December 1991, when the motorized concept was abandoned and the division inactivated.[citation needed]

HMMWVs first saw combat in Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. The HMMWV was designed primarily for personnel and light cargo transport behind front lines, not as a front-line fighting vehicle. Like the previous jeep, the basic first-generation HMMWV has no armor (though armament carriers and hard-shell ambulances did have modest ballistic protection)[29] or protection against chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats. Nevertheless, losses were relatively low in conventional operations, such as the Gulf War. Vehicles and crews suffered considerable damage and losses during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 because of the nature of urban engagement. However, the chassis survivability allowed the majority of those crews to return to safety, though the HMMWV was never designed to offer protection against intense small arms fire, much less machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. With the rise of asymmetric warfare and low-intensity conflicts, the HMMWV was pressed into service in urban combat roles for which it was not originally intended.[30]

After Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, the military recognized a need for a more protected HMMWV. AM General developed the M1114, an armored HMMWV to withstand small arms fire. The M1114 has been in production since 1996, seeing limited use in the Balkans before deployment to the Middle East. This design is superior to the M998 with a larger, more powerful turbocharged engine, air conditioning, and a strengthened suspension system. More importantly, it boasts a fully armored passenger area protected by hardened steel and bullet-resistant glass. With the increase in direct attacks and asymmetric warfare in Iraq, AM General diverted the majority of its manufacturing power to producing these vehicles.[citation needed]

Humvees were sent into Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, where they proved invaluable during initial operations. In the early years before IEDs became prevalent, the vehicle was liked by troops for its ability to access rough, mountainous terrain. Some soldiers would remove features from Humvees, including what little armor it had and sometimes even entire doors, to make them lighter and more maneuverable for off-road conditions and to increase visibility. With the onset of the Iraq War, Humvees proved very vulnerable to IEDs; in the first four months of 2006, 67 U.S. troops died in Humvees. To increase protection, the U.S. military hastily added armor kits to the vehicles. Although this somewhat improved survivability, bolting on armor made the Humvee an "ungainly beast", increasing weight and putting a strain on the chassis, which led to unreliability. Armored doors that weighed hundreds of pounds were difficult for troops to open, and the newly armored turret made Humvees top-heavy and increased the danger of rollovers. The U.S. Marine Corps decided to start replacing Humvees in combat with Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles in 2007, and the U.S. Army stated that the vehicle was "no longer feasible for combat" in 2012.[7][22] However, Humvees have also been used by Taliban insurgents for suicide bombings against the Afghan National Security Forces in the country.[31][32][33]

The HMMWV has become the vehicular backbone of U.S. forces around the world. Over 10,000 HMMWVs were employed by coalition forces during the Iraq War.[34] The Humvee has been described as a vehicle with "the right capability for its era": designed to provide payload mobility in protected (safe) areas. However, deploying the vehicle to conflict zones where it was exposed to a full spectrum of threat which it was neither designed to operate, or be survivable in, led to adding protection at the cost of mobility and payload.[7]

On 22 April 2022, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby described a package of military equipment being transported to Ukraine to assist in its war with Russia, including "100 armored Humvee vehicles".[35] An additional 50 were promised on 19 August 2022, and were delivered at an unknown date.[36] A number of Humvees were used in the assault on the Russian oblast of Belgorod on 22 May 2023.[37] Ukraine first received Humvees from the U.S. in 2001, and they were used by them in peacekeeping operations in Kosovo that same year.[37]

In December 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came under criticism from U.S. troops and their families for not providing better-equipped HMMWVs.[38] Rumsfeld pointed out that, before the war, armor kits were produced only in small numbers per year. As the role of American forces in Iraq changed from fighting the Iraqi Army to suppressing the insurgency, more armor kits were being manufactured, though perhaps not as fast as production facilities were capable. Even more advanced kits were also being developed. While these kits are much more effective against all types of attacks, they weigh from 1,500 to 2,200 lb (680 to 1,000 kg) and have some of the same drawbacks as the improvised armor.[39] Unlike similar-sized civilian cargo and tow trucks, which typically have dual rear wheels to reduce sway, the HMMWV has single rear wheels because of its independent rear suspension coupled with the body design.

Most up-armored HMMWVs hold up well against lateral attacks when the blast is distributed in all different directions but offer little protection from a mine blast below the truck, such as buried IEDs and land mines. Explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) can also defeat the armor kits, causing casualties.

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