It’s with great sadness that I report to you that Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale just said at his briefing that 2010 would be the last year that the Pentagon would buy the venerable High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.
Budget documents released today show that the the Pentagon is devoting about $1 million to replace war losses of Humvees, but will buy none over and above the current numbers. The Pentagon budgeted for about 8,000 Humvees in FY 2010 to the tune of $1.3 billion.
We’ll likely get more info on how serious the Army is about the JLTV, the Humvee’s replacement, at the Army breakout in a few minutes. But it’s just gigantic that the newest budget zeros out funds for the Humvee. Since about 1985, the Humvee has served very well in a variety of roles both as its originally intended support vehicle role and as a no joke combat vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 100,000 have been produced in various configurations for the US military.
I’ve logged many hours in Humvees of various configurations and I had to good fortune to travel to Mishawaka, Ind., and South Bend, to see the production facility and drive the AM General test track in an uparmored Humvee. I’m psyched about the possibilities of the JLTV and feel that it’s high time we moved away from the Humvee, but I’ll look back with great affection at that cramped, dusty, bumpy, creaky, stinky, hot, bull-dog-tough truck.
UPDATE: Army budget officials Lt. Gen. Edgar Stanton said at the breakout that “we reached the end of the line with the Humvee a sooner than we expected.” Fewer losses in Iraq and Afghanistan and the introduction of the M-ATV makes for “fewer uses for the Humvee.”
– Christian
It is interesting how modest the advances in automotive technology have been from 1985 to 2009. For example, two of the top ten models (obviously with numerous incremental modifications), the Honda Accord and Chevy Corvette, appears in Car and Driver’s Top Ten for both 1985 and 2009. Even the concept cars look very similar from then to now.
What advances do you want? A Humvee should not be looked at as a tactical attack vehicle. A Humvee provides Basic Transportation (BT), no more and no less. A large number of Humvees are retasked to do different roles such as Air Defense (a.k.a. the Avenger), but it essentiall serves as a BT system to move from spot to spot.
I’m in the military and I don’t need a lot of options and “extras” that create problems. I need a simple, basic vehicle that can take a lot of damage while still working. Options and “extras” just create maintenance issues.
Advances in auto tech for street vehicles does not directly impact military vehcile tech. If you want to show me improved protective armor for a military vehicle that came from a “street car” I would be very interested.
Perhaps you meant $1.3 Billion for 8,000 Humvee’s?
Gotta be. $1.3M divided by 8,000 means a HMMWV costs only $162? $1.3B meaning $162k/each would make sense (though overpriced).
Ok.… for $162.00 I will buy two. For 5 dollars more can you throw in the body armor? How much for a MK19?
yeah yeah…thank God for the internets…i can make fixes ASAP…
Thanks
About time they got rid of the P.O.S#*%…time to buy MILITARY vehicals, not street cars.
how do you consider it a street car? the humvee was originaly a tach. veh. the auto makers took it and removed the great features that made it an outstanding veh. the lame ass production model is no where near what the real humvee is.
The GM HUMMER is a Suburban with a codpiece…
Thanks Tam at “View from the Porch”.
Just because an automaker fashioned a line of vehicles AFTER the humvee doesn’t make it a street car. Despite some of its issues it is still one of the better light tactical vehicles in service.
I don’t quite understand this. From what I’ve read the Marine Corps is considering using the HUMVEE instead of the JLTV…the Commandant has called it over weight etc…Is this just the Army talking or does it cover everyone?
It was Pentagon comptroller, so I assume it means everyone. Corps will stick with what they have now and get more M-ATVs until JLTV.
Ok, their going to spend $1.3 Billion dollars on a vehicle thats being phased out of the system…Hmmm…
Why not just purchase What ever the amount of M-ATV’s they can afford with the $1.3 Billion (Which probably would be 1/3 of the 8000 HUMVEES), but at least you would have a Vehicle that would be “Purpose” Built for combat and ready to be deployed instead of 8000 Hummers that will eventually make their way to the Army/ Navy Store in a few years.
Why replace just for the sake of replacing 1 for 1 Humvees?
The JLTV might be here some day, and then what ya gonna do with them 8000 Hummers you bought, parked and forgot about?
Christian,
Doesn’t $1 million seem a tad low for war loss replacement costs?
How much for a Ued Hummer (any service use).,
Nice
Can I get one locally via our NG base or nearby Recruitting Center?
Love the van types & the roof mounted gun units models.
Cramped? You’ve obviously never ridden in the back seat of a 151 loaded for a 6 hr patrol of the IGB, in February. A 6 hour tour…
I bet he’s now frantically searching the web trying to find out what’s this “151” you’ve been talking about.
Auto tech has stagnated. But so have passenger planes and trains. So have a lot of things. So have houses and apartments.
Radical changes (especially when it comes to moving thousands of pounds of stuff) require fundamental breakthroughs — like bigger, better, cheaper fuel sources, breakthroughs in physics or materials science, stuff like that. After each breakthrough normal engineers are pretty good at exploring the state space and finding the best uses.
No you can NOT by a used military humvee. In order to be sold to the public a military item must be “demilitarized”, a process that essentially destroys the vehicle. The old ones will be pawned off on our NG, Reserve, and NATO friends first and then when they are so broken down that they can not be refitted/pawned off again they will broken down for scrap. The other problem is that military vehicles are not DOT legal to drive on the street; lack of safety features, too dim lighting systems and whatnot.
Here is a website with more details: http://www.olive-drab.com/od_mvg_hmmwv_howtobuy.php3
You CAN, however, get used military versions of civilian vehicles — i.e. old K5 blazers, big 3 made sedans, forklifts and etc. or you can go through a european dealer and get used NATO versions of civilian vehicles — i.e. land rovers from the brits, unimogs from the germans and others. But those are basically street legal vehicles that are stripped of creature comforts and painted green. In the Mid-1990’s a very few of them were sold to an equipment manufacturer by the USMC. Some of them are still floating around but they are in the 17-25k price range.
hope that helps!
You over generalize. Lots of mil items are sold to the public, just stop in you’re local surplus store. And according to the web site you provided, there are HUMMV’s out there.
Is the whole armed services switching over or just the army?
I heard the next vehicle to replace the Hummer will be made by china called the
在垃圾的出售一 walmart. Just you wait and see
Maybe they are going to quit buying the Humvee since General Motors sold the brand to China!
Maybe it’s because the Government took over GM and doesn’t want to be responsible for any Humvee asociated problems!!!