The USA’s 2009 Hummer Orders

The USA’s 2009 Hummer Orders

(NSI News Source Info) February 4, 2009: The US military’s Hummers have demonstrated severe payload and survivability limitations. Nevertheless, they remain a fixture in the fleet, and new orders continue. Orders and shipments of blast-resistant MRAP vehicles have largely tailed off after a run of over 15,000 vehicles, and the 40,000 to 60,000 vehicle JLTV program will not field Hummer replacements until 2014 – if it survives at all.

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee) is a military 4WD motor vehicle created by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles formerly served by the M151 1/4 ton MUTT, the M561 "Gama Goat", their M718A1 and M792 ambulance versions, the CUCV, and other light trucks with the United States military, as well as being used by a number of other countries and organizations.

The US military is working on an interim M-ATV program that will buy lighter blast-resistant vehicles for use on the front lines, but that program has yet to issue a contract, let alone fielding vehicles in theater. All of these options distinguish themselves from the HMMWV or “hummer” by having smooth, shaped bottoms that deflect land mine blasts away, instead of flat bottoms with lots of pockets that catch, reflect, and catch under-body explosions in an iterative cycle.

At one point, the US Marines’ objective was to restrict Hummers to use “inside the wire” of American bases in Iraq. Instead, a sharp reduction in violence within Iraq, and a lower vehicle threat level so far in Afghanistan, have given the HMMWVs a new lease on life.

They are still seeing extensive use on the front lines, and the early wear created by the weight of their add-on armor has led to RESET maintenance programs for some Hummers and allied giveaways for others. The US Army had about 19,000 HMMWV vehicles in Iraq alone in mid-2007. As Hummers wear out and are given away, or are sent to a depot, they must be replaced. Some replacement involves cycling vehicles from other units into theater, but those units must eventually have their lost vehicles replaced with Hummers or with something else, in order to maintain their own readiness rates for deployment. Hence the necessity for ongoing buys of more Hummers, in the absence of a program to provide replacements on a fleet-wide basis. This Spotlight article covers the family’s newest variants, and chronicles the US military’s 2009 purchases. It will soon become a subscriber-only feature.