The Humvee has also been spawned into an air-defense deterrent role featuring the proven and capable Stinger short-range, air-to-air missile. This Humvee is essentially an M1037 shelter carrier fitted with a powered, single-seat 360-degree traversable turret mounting 8 x infrared/ultra-violet high-explosive fragmentation Stinger missiles in two pods, with four missiles to a pod. Stinger missiles have the ability to track and engage an enemy air target from any direction, not just the hot exhausting rear of a given aircraft. A laser range finder is built into the turret system. These turret systems are known by the name of "Avenger" and can be removed and used as stand-alone weapon systems.
An improved formidable mobile air-defense system has recently emerged as the "SLAMRAAM" (or "HUMRAAM"), a similarly modified Humvee featuring the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) popularly deployed on current generation fighters. SLAMRAAM execution is provided for under the Raytheon banner and is intended to work in conjunction with the existing Avenger short-ranged systems. Six AMRAMM missiles are fitted in a staggered formation atop a rear-mounted rack system. The chassis is that of an M1113 ECH Humvee.
While armor upgrade kits (capable of defeating up to 7.62mm projectiles) became available to Humvee operators following the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, in-the-field upgrades produced a versatile armament-carrying Humvee featuring the open-topped weapon ring mount protecting the gunner along his sides and back by the addition of armor "shields". Official side door gun mounts were later made optional as well, in an effort to deter attacks on coalition convoys.
The M1114 "up-armored" Humvee has since become the standard operating Humvee in Iraq. With the base vehicle provided for by AM General, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt was called upon to set up the armor protection. Though these systems improved on crew survivability, they were little match for the improving tactics of Iraqi guerilla fighters and their Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Despite this, the M1114 still proved an upgrade over base Humvees and many-a-tale of survival still emerged (and continue to do so) of exploded Humvees and their living occupants.
SImilarly in Afghanistan, the Humvee has proven an exceptional cross-country vehicle. With lessons learned across both fronts in Southern Asia, the Humvee has proven time and again its importance to American forces in the region. Afghanistan Humvees are well represented and include the up-armored M1114 series and "light-skinned" versions for quick reaction forces.
As the HMMWV's legacy grew on the battlefield, it was within in little time that the vehicle was debuted in civilian form to a welcoming public already respecting the machines positive media coverage in past campaigns. The civilian versions were designated as "Hummer" and initially appeared with the Hummer H1 in 1992. Some of these H1's were procured via the US Army for use as VIP transports. General Motors produced the commercial Hummer H2 in 2003 followed by the Hummer H3 in 2006. While the H1 proved to have more in line with her military counterpart (including her boxy utilitarian appearance), the General Motor's products were through-and-through "civilian-friendly" systems with little in common with the official AM General products. While maintaining some level of respectable off-road performance, the H2 and H3 are a far cry from the bare-bones military HMMWVs and "upscale" H1s.
By the end of 2005, some 180,000 HMMWVs were eventually produced, with full rate production beginning in 1985. Though the designation of HMMWV is used throughout US military nomenclature, it is verbally assigned the name of "Humvee". Since this name is reserved for military HMMWV systems, the applicable naming convention for civilian HMMWV's is "Hummer" as in "Hummer H1".
Production of HMMWVs is handled at the AM General assembly plant in South Bend, Indiana. Each machine is thoroughly run and tested to ensure a sound and exceptional product in many ways forming the vital logistical backbone of the US military. The US Border patrol also operates about 100 Hummer H1's in their various sorties on the US-Mexican border.
As it stands, despite the Humvee family being developed in the early 1980s and being nearly thirty years old, it still remains a viable workhorse of many a nation, primarily to the United States of American and all her fighting branches. From the outset, she was of a revolutionary design to which AM General should be commended. She quickly earned the respect of those who operated - and continue to do so today - the vehicle with little regard, pushing the design to the limit and then some. The HMMWV should remain a US military fixture for some time to come.
In August of 2015, it was announced that the Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) had won a competition to succeed the storied HUMVEE line. The design beat out competitors in Lockheed and AM General. The initial order will yield 17,000 vehicles, the procurement contract totaling $6.7 billion USD. Production is slated to begin in 2016 with operational capability reached in 2018 with U.S. Army forces.
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