Army Mulls Vehicle Options To Mitigate Payload Sacrifice In Armored Humvees

Defense Daily, Oct 11, 2006 by Calvin Biesecker

By Calvin Biesecker

The Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) is reviewing its options for its light utility vehicles in light of the fact that its current utility workhorse in Iraq and Afghanistan, the armored versions of the Humvee, frequently struggle with payloads designed to be hauled on the unarmored versions of the vehicles due to the extra weight of the armor, according to industry officials.

Humvees, officially known as the High Mobility Multi-purposed Wheeled Vehicle, are built by AM General with the exception of the M1114 Up Armored Humvee, for which Armor Holdings [AH] is the prime contractor responsible for vehicle armoring with the chassis supplied by AM General. However, the Army has been moving away from the M1114 in favor of the M1151/52 versions with AM General responsible for integrating the armor, which is still mainly supplied by Armor Holdings.

While the armored Humvees are touted for saving the lives of numerous soldiers from small arms fire and even bomb blasts, they are also sluggish on the move and even more so when further weighed down by systems such as command post shelters mounted on the back half of the vehicles.

So beginning earlier this year, TACOM began exploring how armored utility vehicles could carry payloads intended for Humvees without having to degrade the operation of the vehicles.

"TACOM is looking at what systems would move up from an Up Armored Humvee to the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV)," Christopher Chambers, vice president of product and business development at Armor Holdings' Tactical Vehicles Division, told Defense Daily at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday. That's likely just one of the options TACOM is exploring, he said.

FMTV is the Army's medium cargo truck, although it comes in two variants, 2.5- and 5-ton models. Armor Holdings is the prime contractor on the FMTV since acquiring Stewart & Stevenson's vehicle business earlier this year.

Armor Holdings displayed its FMTV utility variant at AUSA, featuring an armored cab, which is setback toward the middle of the vehicle with the engine in front. A typical FMTV has the cab forward over top of the engine compartment. Chambers said the company put the cab back for the utility design because it would be too heavy up front when more armor is added using a "B kit" from the Army's Long Term Armor Strategy.

With the cab back the armored FMTV utility variant still has a 3-ton payload capacity, Chambers said. The vehicle is also C-130 transportable, he noted.

Chambers said he doesn't know when the Army will decide on a particular alternative for the overloaded Up-Armored Humvees but expects a "quick decision" because it is an operational priority. A procurement could amount to "several hundreds of vehicles," he said.

Officials from AM General also said their company continues to work with the Army to improve the payload capacity of armored Humvees.

[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

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