RE HMMWV, changes
(click to view full,
new parts in yellow)

As “$650.1M for 4,526 Hummers” explained in mid-April 2008, the US military continues to orders Hummers by the thousands. Now AM General, LLC in South Bend, IN has received a follow-on a $522.4 million firm-fixed price contract, which will add 3,216 EA High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles to the contract (DAAE07-01-C-S001). Work will be performed in Mishawaka, IN and is expected to be complete by Dec 31/09. One bid was solicited on March 17/06 by TACOM in Warren, MI.

The US military has begun fielding “Reliability Enhanced” M1151, M1152 and M1165 model HMMWVs. There have been some changes made, based on the harsh environment of South West Asia, increased payload demands, and some feedback from the field. The new models have been under development for about 18 months, from mid-2006, and are now in full production following durability testing by the U.S. Government.

RG-33 variant
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The USA’s Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) program has been a long road for BAE Systems. In the wake of the US Army’s belated realization that mine protection was critical for vehicles in theater, BAE’s designs, long-standing experience in the field, and production capacity had made them an early favorite. By June 20/07, however, contracts had been issued for 3,266 Category I patrol & Category II squad-sized MRAP vehicles, fully 42% of a the program’s planned 7,774 orders. Force Protection had racked up orders for 1,780 Cougar vehicles, and Navistar/Plasan Sasa had come out of the tests at Aberdeen with orders for 1,216 of its MaxxPro joint design. BAE sat in 4th place with orders for just 90 vehicles – 2.8% of the total. It had to be a humbling experience for the firm that went into 2004 as the world leader in the field.

BAE has worked hard to catch up, and recent contracts have put them solidly back into the competition, even as the number of MRAPs in the program has expanded. The latest orders widen their lead over 3rd place firm Force Protection, and make them one of just 2 firms with a foothold under the new MRAP-II qualifications. MRAP-II includes protection against EFP (explosively-formed projectile) land mines that fire the equivalent of a cannon shell at the vehicle, in addition to the standard underbody blasts. Meanwhile, BAE has added a new vehicle type to the family, and is receiving more SOCOM orders and an MRAP up-armoring contract…

• BAE MRAP: The Vehicles
• BAE MRAP: The Current Tally
• BAE MRAP: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: MRAP Competition Half-Time Update, June 28/07
  
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Afghan 7000 series
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The U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command recently awarded Navistar Defense a follow-on contract to provide medium tactical trucks and spare parts to the Afghanistan National Police, Afghan National Army and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

Under the multi-year, $1.283 billion contract, Navistar will supply 7,072 vehicles based on their severe service International 7000 Series truck. The order will include General Troop Transporter, POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant), water tankers, wreckers and hazardous material truck variants. In addition, Navistar will supply all required spare parts necessary to support several years of scheduled maintenance. Approximately half of the 2008 order will be delivered during the first year of the contract, with nearly 1,000 units expected to be delivered in FY 2008 (i.e. before Oct 1/08).

MV 7000 as tanker
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This award follows a $430 million contract, 2,900 vehicle contract awarded in 2005, bringing the overall total to $1.71 billion and 9,972 trucks. Navistar release. Note that the International 7000 truck chassis is also the basis of the blast-resistant MaxxPro 4×4 patrol vehicle, which is currently the lead vehicle in the USA’s 15,000+ vehicle MRAP (Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected) program.

Cougar 6×6, IEDed
- the crew lived.
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The Cougar family of medium-sized blast-protected vehicles is produced in both 4-wheel (formerly Cougar H) and 6-wheel (formerly Cougar HE) layouts. Eventually, the wisdom of using survivable vehicles in a theater where land mines were the #1 threat became clearer, and these vehicles have gradually shifted from dedicated engineer and Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) roles to patrol and route-proving/ convoy lead functions as well. The 4×4 vehicles usually carry 4 troops plus the front seats, while the 6×6 variants can carry up to 8+2. They may also carry an assortment of related equipment, such as bomb disposal robots.

These are not small vehicles. The M1114 up-armored Hummers have an empty “curb weight” of around 9,000 pounds, and a top weight of about 12,000 pounds. The smaller Cougar 4×4’s curb weight is 31,000 pounds (max. 38,000), while the 6×6’s curb weight is 38,000 pounds (max. 52,000). As the amusing web page by manufacturer Force Protection puts it: “Drop your purse, it’s not a Hummer.”

Cougar orders predate the USA’s MRAP program to rush mine-resistant vehicles to the front lines; indeed, the performance Force Protection’s vehicles in theater was probably the #1 trigger for the MRAP Program’s existence. This DID FOCUS Article describes Force Protection’s vehicles, and its efforts to ramp up its production; it also covers key events and procurements related to Force Protection’s Cougar (MRAP CAT I & II) and Buffalo (MRAP CAT III) vehicles in the USA and around the world (Britain, Canada, Italy, Iraq, and Yemen to date). The company has faced a great deal of turmoil lately, and US MRAP orders appear to have stopped. The British have just bought 151 4×4s, however, and the maintenance contracts continue…

• The Cougar Vehicles
• Cougar-Related Contracts & Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Ramping Up Production
• Appendix B: Additional Readings and Sources
  
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‘Mastiff PPV’
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In “Britain Buying New Land Vehicles for Iraqi & Afghan Theaters” (July 26/06), DID noted a trio of vehicle purchases intended to upgrade the survivability of Britain’s army patrols in high-threat areas, as part of a general trend among Western militaries toward high-survivability vehicle designs.

Specific figures were not given initially – but those figures have emerged over time, along with field experience to back up the initial pros and cons of Britain’s modified Cougar design. Force Protection Inc ramped up production capacity to produce the “Mastiff Protected Patrol Vehicles” – and now finds itself in the position of having Britain and Iraq as its most important customers. Britain originally chose Force Proitection’s Cougar vehicles over BAE’s RG-33 family, and has elected to continue that trend by adding the 4×4 “Ridgebacks” to its fleet…

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Outta here.
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Up-armored Hummers are still the most common vehicles in front-line service with American forces. To date, however, soldiers have reported problems getting doors open or getting out of the vehicle after land mine blasts, or during accidents that involve water. Lives have been lost, and the problem has spawned ingenious solutions like 10th Mountain Division’s door-ripping “Rat Claw” that saved Lt. Col. Michael Infanti in Iraq.

BAE’s VEE Window is a simple technology that allows crews inside a HMMWV to remove the ballistic windshields in less than 5 seconds and escape during an emergency, such as a rollover or accident. A crew member who can move freely simply pulls out the locking pins, turns the 2 latches, and pushes the window out. Since the window is otherwise normal, the VEE Window meets current windows’ ballistic properties, and was approved for the M1114 HMMWV following a series of Army performance and safety tests at Aberdeen Test Center in the summer of 2007. An order was placed in August 2007, and now a second order has been added to equip American Hummers…

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Iraqi Police,
Baghdad
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Global Fleet Sales, Inc. is a member of the RM Asia Group of Companies, and has a long history of working in “difficult market situations” to produce modified and baseline Ford vehicles for companies and organizations involved in Humanitarian, Aid, Relief and Development Projects, and Police services around the world. The firm has been tapped for a number of US government contracts beginning in 2005, and DID has covered one of those contracts for Afghan Police vehicles. GFS maintains all of the vehicles used by the Afghan National Army, with maintenance facilities in Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Gardez; its parent firm RM Asia has a full country office in Afghanistan.

GFS has now opened a production and engineering center at Thailand’s Laem Chabang duty free deep sea port, near the Ford plant at Rayong. The new production facility provides the full range of vehicle modifications ranging from special application fire trucks to ambulances, military Vehicles, severe off-road (SOR is an excellent acronym…) vehicles, refrigerated boxes, and limited accessory fitting. They complement the firm’s on-site warehouses for parts et. al.

A couple of recent awards fall under a 3 year firm-fixed-price contract with the US military to provide modified vehicles for customers like the Afghan and Iraqi police, and for other foreign military sales customers who might choose to order under the set contract terms and advantageous prices the US military has negotiated. GFS’ Contracts include…

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VAMTAC, Congo
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Western militaries are quickly coming to the realization that the light Land Rover, G-Wagen, and HMMWV type flat bottom vehicles deployed as light troop transports are no longer adequate on a non-linear battlefield with no defined front lines, in a world where the technology for making improvised and professional land mines is proliferating globally. Spain has been late to this realization, and the Ministerio de Defensa has been the target of criticism for that lateness. Spanish soldiers have also been targets: 4 successful land mine attacks in the 16 months leading up to Spain’s MRAP decision had killed 10 soldiers and a translator (6 in Lebanon, 5 in Afghanistan).

In November 2007, with 4 months to go before elections, the situation in Spain shifted. DID reader Pedro Lucio’s research and translation assistance helps us discuss the Spanish Council of Ministers announcement, and other reports that amount to a major MRAP Class I and Class II program for Spain. The program will replace/supplement its VAMTAC and recently-acquired Anibal (Land Rover derivative) vehicles by 2009. Over the longer term, Spain will also replace its 6×6 BMR Armored Personnel Carriers. The 575+ vehicle acquisition program is sketched out, the finalists are lined up, a program to buy wheeled APCs will follow. Now, the winners for the first 2 phases are clear…

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USMC RG-31,
IEDed in Iraq
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BAE OMC’s RG-31 was the first mine-resistant vehicle fielded by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it was used by the 101st Airborne (and reportedly by SOCOM) as a patrol vehicle. Since hostilities began, a series of orders have been placed by US forces through an odd triumverate: General Dynamics Land Systems Canada was partnered with BAE OMC of South Africa and its GDLS parent in the USA. All contracts are signed through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown Agency of the Canadian Government (who also use RG-31s).

According to General Dynamics, as of August 2007, U.S. forces had ordered 492 RG-31 vehicles, including 309 of the improved RG-31 Mk5 variant for the U.S. Army and Special Operations Command (SOCOM). Almost none of these orders had come through the MRAP program, however – just 20 vehicles as of July 2007, even as competitors like Navistar and Force Protection had seen order book totals approaching 2,000.

General Dynamics does reap 50% of every Cougar MRAP order to Force Protection, via the Force Dynamics partnership, but the RG-31 had been MIA. An August 2007 order for 600 more vehicles put General Dynamics back in the game as a distant 4th place producer; hopefully, US forces will be able to avoid the initial maintenance issues that have given Canadian RG-31s problems in Afghanistan. The latest developments involve American contract involving what appear to be some design changes…

• GD’s Other MRAP Entries: The RG-31 Family
• RG-31 MRAP Contracts
  
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X-ray vs. ZB
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American Science and Engineering’s Z Backscatter Van™ (ZBV) is a low-cost, extremely maneuverable screening system built into a commercially available delivery van. The ZBV employs AS&E’s patented Z Backscatter technology, which reveals contraband that transmission X-rays miss – such as explosives (including car bombs), plastic weapons, and people – providing photo-like imaging for rapid analysis.

The Z-Backscatter Van is also capable of identifying low levels of radioactivity from both gamma rays and neutrons with optional Radioactive Threat Detection (RTD) technology. Here’s how it works…

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