What will replace the Humvee?
Humvee
The career of any vehicle comes to an end at one point or another, while in the civilian, commercial world this usually has to do with design trends and technological advancements, there are several classic models that have been regenerated and updated, after many years of not being produced. The same cannot however, be said about military vehicles. This is an area in which function far outweighs any design idea, however even in this area older vehicles have to be scrapped at one time or another because of the constantly changing landscape of warfare, as well as the constant advances in armor and weapon technology.
This is finally the place that the almost legendary, but aging, Humvee has reached, after thirty years of serving the U.S. Military, in a variety of models, the Humvee stands to be replaced in 2015 with something called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
Over fifty thousand Humvees have been manufactured in the past decades and this is a large number of vehicles to replace, so the process will obviously be done in stages, the first part beginning in 2015 when approximately 18,500 vehicles from the U.S. Army and Marine Corps will be replaced.
At the current time there are six, very serious, proposals being taken into consideration, each of the contractor wanting to be part of what is said to be a $5 billion-plus program, and the suppliers are not far behind.
Three of the six proposals will receive a sum of up to sixty-five million dollars to invest in the preproduction engineering, manufacturing and development phase of this new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Let’s take a quick look at the six.
BRV-O
This model was designed by AM General – the same manufacturer who has produced the original Humvee – it is a six-cylinder, 3.2-liter turbocharged engine which can develop 300 hp and 500 pounds-feet of torque.
Eagle
This is a repurposed version of the Eagle IV, a General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General joint development. This model is part of a recent request from the Army to review older vehicles with more current technologies in order for it to reach the market in a considerably faster time-span.
L-ATV
This is a vehicle developed independently by Oshkosh Defense, it will feature the company’s proprietary Tak-4i intelligent suspension system which has already been tested in the field on over twenty thousand vehicles.
Oshkosh is also offering the option of installing a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain in order to decrease fuel consumption.
Lockheed JLTV
Lockheed actually won the first phase of the JLTV development, but they have had to make quite a few modifications after the requirements from the Pentagon changed for the second phase. Lockheed mentioned that some of these changes meant the use of less expensive materials and fewer exotic metal like titanium
Saratoga
This is another independently developed model, created by Navistar Defense. This vehicle became part of the list during the project’s second phase when the Army reopened the competition to all bidders.
Valanx
The vehicle developed by BAE Systems has been in a constant process of evolution since the initial round of pre-development contracts. They’ve changed the engine, the design has been retooled in order to meet reduced weight limits and Roush Enterprises Inc. has been brought in to handle some engine system integration work.
We’ll keep you posted as this interesting part of military vehicle history continues to unfold.
