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 In recognition of our March Military Campaign, let's take a break
from considering the collector-worthiness of all those namby-pamby
civilian passenger vehicles from 1986 and look at a vehicle that has
surely earned its stripes: the AM General HMMWV, a.k.a. the Humvee.
Designed in 1979 to replace a number of vehicles then in the U.S. Army's motor pools - including the M561 Gama Goat and the M151 Mutt
- the High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle was one of three
designs submitted, the other two coming from Chrysler and Teledyne
Continental.
In 1983 the U.S. Army
awarded the first of a number of contracts for HMMWV production to AM General.
With the M998 designation, it went into production in the fall of 1984,
and has remained in constant production since then, evolving over the
years to meet changing field requirements - variants include pickups,
ambulances, armament carriers and the more recent uparmored versions.
With full-time four-wheel-drive, independent suspension front and rear,
a GM-sourced 6.2L diesel V-8 engine, along with a host of other
goodies, it proved plenty capable in off-road conditions, enough to
directly inspire a civilian version, the 1992 Hummer H1, as well as a
couple of Chinese knockoffs. According to AM General, more than 190,000
total HMMWVs have been built. Only in recent years has the Army moved
to find a replacement for the highly extensible HMMWV.
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Re: March Military Campaign: The First Humvee
