ARMORED WARFARE: Hummers Getting Worked to Death

StrategyPage.com ^ | March 15, 2004

[blanknoone]

No doubt the soft skin hummers are great...but for a different mission. Uparmoring them is not the answer. We have a need for an armored patrol vehicle, and we should build one, not try to turn the humvee into something it is not and never will be. The SISU is not the right vehicle either, but its COTS development process does point the way to a reliable patrol vehicle.

We need an armored patrol vehicle for peacekeeping ops, and we should build one not strap steel onto souped up jeeps. Indeed, imagine a vehicle a little smaller than a SISU, with bulletproof glass observation windows on the side, or a bulletproof lexan bubble on top.

The SISU's limited off road mobility comes from the same place as its cheap sticker price...its engine, suspension and transmission is basically a commercial bus. It wasn't designed for off road...and urban patrol vehicles aren't either.

[American_Centurion]

Agree with everything you said.

I also think that there are a lot of areas that our patrols would be better off on foot than in convoy.

The supply trains have to use vehicles, the reaction forces and forces participating in offensive operations need to use vehicles, but for the most part foot patrols are hard to beat from a defensive standpoint. That is a large part of our operations, offensive patrols for defensive purposes. Real hard to occupy land and not be on the defense.

[Cold Heart]

I had 6.5 GM turbo diesel. I had to join "The Diesel Page" just to keep the thing running. Overheated, fall apart $2000 fuel injection pump, low power, and to top it off, the same fuel mileage as my old gas 350. I went back to gas.
I couldn't believe our military depended on that engine.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Puma

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Blindados 4 X 4 leves

I can look at pictures in Portugese, don't read it very well.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Good pics here