Iraqi Army Buying Up-Armored Hummers
O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. in Fairfield, OH received a $31.5 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for up-armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles for the Iraqi Armed Forces. Work will be performed in Fairfield, OH and is expected to be complete by July 31, 2006. This was a sole source contract initiated on April 10, 2000 by the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, MI (DAAE07-00-C-S019).
While the Hummer has its share of critics, many Iraqi units have been driving around in civilian pickup trucks and similar vehicles. Up-armored Hummers aren’t exactly the T-72s, BMP-1s and MT-BLs of Iraq’s 9th Army Division. Nor even the M113s (which Iraq attempted to procure from Switzerland, though a couple thousand currently sit in US storage) and M1126 Stryker ICVs in use by the Americans. With that said, they are surely an improvement over a Chevy Silverado or Suburban.
