Once upon a time, we never thought this day would come: the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, or as it’s best known, “Humvee” or “Hummer”) is bound for the annals of military antiquity.
That’s right, compensating suburban bro-dudes. After 31 years as the U.S. military’s iconic truck and ridiculous symbol of more-money-than-sense entitled excess, you’re all about to be driving around in little more than gas-torching nostalgia that your government just kind of pities these days. In its place, Oshkosh will roll out somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) with more versatile configurations and functions and more stout armor while looking every inch as nasty as they bulky bruisers headed for obsolescence.
In either their two- or four-seat layouts, the Wisconsin-based truck manufacturer has given the spotlight to the JLTV’s combat practicality, namely the mine resistance, IED detection and, again, a wall of bolt-on armor that rounds out the Core1080 Crew Protection System. For all its improved protective bulk, it somehow also rumbles along 70 percent faster than any currently dominant tactical wheeled vehicle (TWV) driven around the world. Not only is it faster, but with 20 inches of off-road-suited wheel travel and electronically adjustable suspension to transport the JLTVs themselves wherever they’ll come in handy, it’s also worlds more agile. When it has no choice but to make a point the hard way, it can unload optional turret and missle launch units that more than stack up to whatever an enemy may bring to the table.
We’re going to go out on a limb and guess these darlings never grace a dealership lot. If one ever does….we call “dibs” forever.
Source – Verge
