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Here are some stats on the Uparmored Humvee deficiencies.

There are 8500 soft humvees in Iraq not. Less than 1700 armored humvees have ever been produced. The army believes it is deficient by 3500-4000 armored humvees in Iraq. Less than 3500 armored humvees will be produced between now and June 2005.

A very high proportion of our ground casualties are coming from IEM, RPG and small arms fire placed on trailing vehicles in convoy. Most casualties seem to be occurring in unarmored humvees.

Production rates remain suboptimal and even with current plant expansion planned, will not reach more than 200 per month by year-end. This is a ridiculous situation and I'm asking any freepers that have some ideas on this to help forward them to me as I am very active with congress on this matter. At the same time realize that 50,000 commercial grade hummers will be produced by GM along next year and those are subsidized with a small business tax deduction by $100K. Thus your local dentist gets a yellow hummer but your boy in Iraq rides around in essentially an open bed pickup taking RPG, machinegun and IED hits.

Anyone that has ideas or a means of resolving this issue, please contact me.

I don't think the problem should be solved by trying to turn the unarmored humvee into an armored humvee. The mission calls for a cheap to buy (lots of 'em) and cheap to operate wheeled APC. America can (and in my opinion should) build one. I don't think the LAV is it, the LAV is a high end combat platform, and priced to match. America should design and build a cheap wheeled APC with COTS components from the truck/bus industry. In comparison, the SISU APC is cheaper then the M1114. It ain't a great APC (ala LAV/Stryker) but its a whole lot better than the M1114.

the H2 has no military pretensions.

The traditional Hummer, star of Operation Desert Storm and numerous Join the Army commercials over the last decade or so, is now dubbed H1, at least in civilian garb. It remains a one-step-removed MilSpec one-and-a-quarter-ton truck of tremendous off-road ability and scant civilian amenities.

The Hummer folks craftily rummaged through GM's well-stocked parts bins and came up with an engine, transmission, front suspension, and brakes from the three-quarter-ton K2500 Suburban, a rear suspension (modified for longer travel and capacity) from the Tahoe, and a steering column and shifter from the TrailBlazer--and that's just for starters.

Your local dentist probably gets a yellow hummer H2, not an H1, which could conceivably be pressed into service. If this nation was mobilized for war there would be no Hummer H1's available for civilian sale. The entire manufacturer's output would be bought up by DOD.

Bolt on armor kit like the Brits used in Northern Ireland in the bad old days also I read that the brits have worked on a "electric" armor for defeating RPG-7's consisting of two plates with an insulating material between that has current applied.When a RPG hits the copper cone in the warhead that forms the self forgeing penetrating fragment peirces the first plate & the insulating material till it contacts the second plate completing an electric circut which vaporizes the copper similar in manner as trying to rig up the starter to a deuce and a half with two single strands of speaker wire . We need to talk to the Brits about this item, they have done some preliminary testing that was successful.

A very high proportion of our ground casualties are coming from IEM, RPG and small arms fire placed on trailing vehicles in convoy. Most casualties seem to be occurring in unarmored humvees.
Production rates remain suboptimal and even with current plant expansion planned, will not reach more than 200 per month by year-end. This is a ridiculous situation and I'm asking any freepers that have some ideas on this to help forward them to me as I am very active with congress on this matter. At the same time realize that 50,000 commercial grade hummers will be produced by GM along next year and those are subsidized with a small business tax deduction by $100K. Thus your local dentist gets a yellow hummer but your boy in Iraq rides around in essentially an open bed pickup taking RPG, machinegun and IED hits.

Anyone that has ideas or a means of resolving this issue, please contact me.

The armored door package seems like a good start. It looks like they ought to be made standard on all Humvees in the fleet, certainly on all in Iraq.