Richard Cooley, president of the Armored Auto Group, has big ambitions for his three-year-old company: to grab a piece of the market for the next generation of U.S. military light tactical vehicles.
While his startup is a newcomer to the field of military vehicles, he believes there will be plenty of work to go around as the Army and Marines consider what, if anything, they will do to replace the high mobility, multi-purpose wheeled vehicle, better known as the Humvee.
“We think we’re going to be able to get into the mix. At what level, we’re not sure,” said Cooley, who doesn’t rule out the possibility that his company could end up building a future Humvee replacement truck at its San Antonio, Texas, plant. “We’d actually like to make the vehicle ourselves,” he added.
Although there are as yet no firm plans or funding to replace the Humvee, truck manufacturers large and small, foreign and domestic, are gearing up to take on the only maker of the 20-year-old vehicle, AM General. Alliances are being struck and partners gathered as the Iraq war shapes the debate on what troops need in the field to protect themselves from mines, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs.
AM General spokesman Craig MacNab said the Humvee is performing well in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the original design is 20 years old, the vehicle has undergone relentless upgrades during the past two decades.
“It is by no means obsolete,” he said.
Not surprisingly, rivals looking to break into the light tactical wheeled vehicle market disagree. Archie Massicotte, president of military and government business at International Truck and Engine said, “the Humvee has served a great life for the military for 20 some years. I think what they’re finding is that we’re fighting battles now in Iraq, and they’re using it as a tactical wheeled vehicle. And it was never intended to be a tactical wheeled vehicle,” he said.
International Truck has made no secret that it intends to take on AM General. It recently announced a partnership with South African armored vehicle manufacturer Armor Technology Systems Ltd. It has been spending its own research and development funds to build the MXT-MV model, with an eye toward selling it as a Humvee replacement. It has also partnered with Israel’s Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd., and Mississippi-based Griffin Inc. on its armored personnel carrier.
“We’re a major truck company,” Massicotte said. “It’s what we do every day. It won’t be a huge undertaking for us to step into a newly developed vehicle and bring it into fruition.” He expects the Army will begin a competition for a Humvee replacement in 2007.
Jim Mills, a military truck expert, said other competitors will emerge. Some will come from overseas, but political and practical considerations will lead foreign firms to seek U.S.-based partners. Negotiating the Defense Department acquisition process is a tough proposition for outsiders, he noted. And manufacturing at least part of the vehicle in the United States would go down better politically.
“Other companies are lining up now, and they’re seeing the opportunities,” Mills said. “At some point, someone will have to come up with the dollars to do it.”
MacNab insisted that nothing is in place to move toward a renewed competition for the contract, which expires in 2007. The often-mentioned Future Tactical Truck System is an advanced technology demonstration program, and not a Humvee replacement, he said. “It’s not a procurement program; it’s a technology demonstration.”
Even if the contract does not come up for bid, there are plenty of wish lists and ideas out there for new features.
Mills, who worked on the Humvee program while in the Army, said the process of writing a requirements document for the next generation of light vehicles began in the mid-1990s, and was completed in early 2004. While there has been much public discourse on the effectiveness of the Humvee in Iraq, the document was largely finished in the early stages of the war. The military’s experiences in Somalia and Bosnia were more of an influence, he said. Those conflicts marked the first time the Army and Marines saw the need for an armored version.
Armored Humvees were first introduced in Bosnia. When the Iraq war began, demand for armoring kits soared.
While the requirements document was completed in the early stages of the war in Iraq, the prevalence of roadside bombs, and remarks by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to a soldier’s question in 2004 about not having the proper armor, sparked debate on whether the Humvee is the right vehicle for urban combat.
The question of armor—how much is needed, when to use it and the trade-offs in engine power, weight and carrying capacity it entails—will be a technological challenge for any proposed follow-on vehicle, experts said.
“You have to be careful about specifically designing the next truck for Iraq, because the next place we may be may not be an Iraq environment,” Mills said. He predicted the kits used to “up-armor” the Humvee will remain. That will require overbuilding the chassis and engines to accommodate the increased payload requirements. Not every vehicle will require armor, but all will need the flexibility to carry the armor if required, Mills said.
The prevalence of roadside bombs, which have been responsible for more than half of U.S. fatalities in Iraq, will push armor technologies to improve. The lighter the armor, the more efficient the engine will run and the more cargo it can carry. Mills predicted incremental improvements of 5 to 10 percent in armor efficiency rather than a revolutionary change of perhaps 50 percent. Ceramics, reactive armor and traditional steel plates are all in the mix.
AM General’s 1151 and 1152 Humvee models will address the need for easy-to-apply or remove armament kits, MacNab said. It will allow new armor technologies to be incorporated “without starting all over from scratch.” The U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command awarded AM General a contract last year for delivery of 2,074 units of the new models.
Shaped charges that send roadside bombs laden with copper and steel shooting 5,000-degree plasma through an armored vehicle, are an emerging problem, said Cooley. His firm has armor that can withstand 9,000-degree plasma bombs. However, the vulnerability remains glass.
Armored Auto Group and several competitors are working on the ballistic glass issue. The problem with glass, he said, is that its weight and thickness increases exponentially for every increase in bullet caliber protection. Slight upgrades in protection can double the thickness.
The rewards for creating a windshield that can withstand higher caliber bullets and explosions are significant because the technology has commercial applications. Cooley said his company recently sold its glass product to a construction company that wanted windows strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds. This wider market will drive prices down and spur research, he said.
Mills said there will also be a need for windshields that can better accommodate night-vision technology. Lead content in the glass can reduce its effectiveness. Soldiers want to be able to drive at night with headlights turned off. And in special operations when stealth is necessary, it’s mandatory to go in with night-vision technology. Longer-range infrared headlights, which would allow drivers to go 45 to 60 miles per hour, will be needed for any follow-on vehicle used in such operations, he said.
Other improvements Mills recommended include a spare tire, air conditioning and electronic stability control. The latter is necessary to prevent rollovers, another leading cause of death and injury in Iraq. Soldiers want to push the Humvee faster to avoid insurgent attacks. Such a system could prevent drivers from having accidents, Mills said, noting that the driver is often the youngest and most inexperienced of the three-soldier crews.
MacNab countered that AM General has an anti-lock breaking system it can incorporate into the Humvee. All it needs is the Defense Department to give it the funds and the go-ahead.
As for air conditioning, Mills’ proposal has been met with derision from those who have called it a “wimpy” idea. Some models have been outfitted with climate control, but more should be in the future, he said. Hot climates can be debilitating and lead to heat-induced injuries. Soldiers should arrive at their destinations battle ready.
Many officers have also expressed the desire for a next-generation Humvee to carry a spare tire, Mills said. Current operations call for crews to drive further away from bases, and maintenance crews are often out of range.
A spare tire, sturdier armor and the perpetual demand for increased cargo space all lead to one thing: a larger, heavier vehicle, Mills said. The term “light tactical vehicle” is becoming a misnomer, he added.
“A soldier in the military will always find more things to carry inside a vehicle,” Mills said. “The next question is how much bigger will the new truck be?”
MacNab said one aspect potential competitors, especially overseas suppliers, neglect is that Humvees need to fit into transport aircraft. The U.S. military has a global reach. No one is going to accept being able to fit only one truck in a C-130.
Mills said there may be a need for an ultra-light vehicle, similar to the retired M274 Mule, one of the vehicles the Humvee was designed to replace. The trend may reverse, Mills and Cooley speculated, with several vehicles, in turn, replacing the Humvee.
The M-Gator, an ultra-light, off-the-shelf vehicle used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and manufactured by John Deere, shows there is a need for a smaller, compact vehicle, Mills said. The M-Gator weighs 1,450 pounds and can carry loads of up to 1,250 pounds. The six-wheeler, roughly the size of a golf cart with no cabin or armor and a top speed of 18 miles per hour, has been touted as a supply carrier and litter that can carry up to three injured soldiers.
Cooley predicted there could be four to six replacement vehicles, which is why he believes there could be room at the table for smaller manufacturers. Although relatively new, his company is already selling its armored vehicles to contractors and non-governmental organizations in Iraq.
The problems with additional models include increased costs associated with training, maintenance, and less commonality in parts. Mills said the Marine Corps — signaling that it would like to go its own way for a follow-on vehicle — may add another model into the mix. The service would like to see room for six personnel, for example. However, the Defense Department or Congress may quickly put an end to that notion on the grounds of increased expenses, Mills added.
Cooley remains a fan of the Humvee, and while he believes the vehicle is currently being tasked with missions it was not designed to handle, “it’s not going the way of the dinosaur,” he said. “It may be phased out over 10 or 15 years, but there’s not going to be a ‘get rid of that, use this’” scenario.
AM General’s MacNab maintains that the Humvee has changed with the times. It now can carry twice as much weight as the original model. “There are little changes made practically every week, and major changes every couple years.”