It looks commanders will have another vehicle to choose from to meet mission requirements:
JLTV picture from Oshkosh website.
Now after 25 years in service it is apparent the Humvee can’t do it all. It won’t exactly be the end of the road for the Humvee, but the military may be putting drivers behind the wheel of other, more versatile alternative vehicles.
“Many of these units will start to be phased out by the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) made by Oshkosh,” added Frost & Sullivan’s Curran. “In addition, special operations command operates various small engine and electrical vehicles made by recreational off road makers like Polaris and others.”
The JLTV isn’t the first vehicle to offer an alternative option to the Humvee – as the military already has the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected or MRAP, the special armored vehicles that were designed to counter land mines. From 2007 until 2012 some 12,000 MRAPs were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Just as the MRAP didn’t replace the Humvee the JLTV won’t replace it either.
“This isn’t a complete replacement for the Humvee,” Dan Wasserbly, editor at Jane’s, told FoxNews.com. “The Army is simply looking for a vehicle that has greater tactical mobility. Something that is lighter and faster than a modern Humvee.”
It is instead about finding the right vehicle for the job. What the MRAP provided in armor and protection was offset by a lack of mobility. [Fox News]
You can read much more at the link to include some interesting history about the HMMWV. What I find interesting is that I went to Oshkosh’s website and the JLTV looks like a re-booted MATV which means it would be bigger than a HMMWV not lighter.
I just hope the Army doesn’t buy more JLTVs than what is needed. I would hate to see a bunch of these vehicles collecting dust sitting around on a FOB in Afghanistan like what happened with the MRAP program. There were so many MRAPs sitting around collecting dust that the Army had them recycled into scrap metal.
How does one make a vehicle bigger than a Humvee but lighter than a Humvee?
…expensive advanced composites, amazing new alloys, and an advertised weight that doesn’t inclide ziptied flack jackets and scrap metal panels so the occupants have a chance of surviving any type of manned or unmanned conflict.
Coming soon: the up-armored JLTV… that is basically an underpowered Humvee at an exciting new price
How far off am I?
setnaffa
7 years ago
Well, part of my Air Force training suggests that you can get them to stop fighting if you kill enough of them. Took 3 years for Germany and about 3.5 for Japan.
Maybe we are losing because our so-called “leaders” want us to lose to 7th Century bandits with less culture than Cheeze Whiz.
We don’t have an Aluminum Overcast to do the job on certain unfriendly Afghan regions that we did on the Rhineland or Tokyo. That’s partly due to not hiring Bomb Wing Commandos to JCS… And partly due to hiring mealy-mouthed failed community organizers and other crooks to responsible posts in our civilian “leadership”…
We don’t have the military or government we need; but we do have the one we deserve.
Don’t be silly, CH. Buying the right tool the first time would provide insufficient opportunities for graft. I mean, look how long we’ve been stuck with the B-52 and how many failed bombers followed it. We don’t have any active navy ships with the years of active service the BUFFs have.
How does one make a vehicle bigger than a Humvee but lighter than a Humvee?
…expensive advanced composites, amazing new alloys, and an advertised weight that doesn’t inclide ziptied flack jackets and scrap metal panels so the occupants have a chance of surviving any type of manned or unmanned conflict.
Coming soon: the up-armored JLTV… that is basically an underpowered Humvee at an exciting new price
How far off am I?
Well, part of my Air Force training suggests that you can get them to stop fighting if you kill enough of them. Took 3 years for Germany and about 3.5 for Japan.
Maybe we are losing because our so-called “leaders” want us to lose to 7th Century bandits with less culture than Cheeze Whiz.
We don’t have an Aluminum Overcast to do the job on certain unfriendly Afghan regions that we did on the Rhineland or Tokyo. That’s partly due to not hiring Bomb Wing Commandos to JCS… And partly due to hiring mealy-mouthed failed community organizers and other crooks to responsible posts in our civilian “leadership”…
We don’t have the military or government we need; but we do have the one we deserve.
Don’t be silly, CH. Buying the right tool the first time would provide insufficient opportunities for graft. I mean, look how long we’ve been stuck with the B-52 and how many failed bombers followed it. We don’t have any active navy ships with the years of active service the BUFFs have.