Since
World War II, the "
Willys MB -ton Truck, Command and Reconnaissance", and its evolutions, were used for mass-deployment, and became known as "jeeps". The
United States military had continued to rely heavily on jeeps as general utility vehicles and as a mass-transport for soldiers in small groups. Although the
U.S. Army had let
Ford redesign the jeep from the ground up during the 1950s, and the resulting 1960
Ford M151 jeep incorporated significant innovations, it firmly adhered to the original concept: a very compact, light enough to manhandle, low profile vehicle, with a folding windshield, that a layman could barely distinguish from the preceding
Willys jeeps. The jeeps were more than two feet shorter than a
Volkswagen Beetle and weighed just over one metric ton, seating three to four, with a off-road payload rating. During and after the war, the very light, -ton jeeps were complemented by the -ton
Dodge WC and Korean War
Dodge M37 models. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. military felt a need to reevaluate their aging light vehicle fleet. From the mid-1960s, the
U.S. Army had tried to modernize, through replacing the larger, purpose-built
Dodge M37s by militarized, "commercial off the shelf" (COTS) 4×4 trucks — initially the
M715 Jeep trucks, succeeded in the later 1970s by several
"CUCV" adapted commercial pickup series, but these did not satisfy newer requirements either. What was wanted was a truly versatile light military truck, that could replace multiple outdated vehicles. When becoming aware of the U.S. Army's desire for a versatile new light weapons carrier/reconnaissance vehicle, as early as 1969
FMC Corporation started development on their
XR311 prototype and offered it for testing in 1970. As well as select vehicles in the
U.S. Marine Corps and
U.S. Air Force. Namely these were the M151 quarter-ton jeeps,
M561 Gama Goats, and the CUCVs, as one uniform "jack-of-all-trades" light tactical vehicle series, to better perform the roles of the impractically mixed fleet of outdated existing vehicles. The specifications called for a diesel engine, excellent on and
off-road performance, the ability to carry a large payload, and improved survivability against indirect fire. Compared to the jeep, it was larger and had a much wider track, with a ground clearance, double that of most
sport-utility vehicles. The new truck was to climb a 60 percent incline and traverse a 40 percent slope and ford of water and electronics waterproofed to drive through of water were specified. The radiator was to be mounted high, sloping over the engine on a forward-hinged hood. Out of 61 companies that showed interest in the contract, five companies submitted proposals before the deadline in April 1981. In July 1981, the Army awarded contracts to three companies—
AM General,
Chrysler Corporation, and
Teledyne Continental—to build eleven HMMWV prototypes each. The vehicles (six weapon carriers and five utility vehicles) were delivered by May 1982. The Teledyne HMMWV was based on the rear-engined XR311 Cheetah. Chrysler's HMMWV was based on the Expanded Mobility Truck. Chrysler Defense was sold mid-competition to
General Dynamics Land Systems. The AM General HMMWV was developed as a private venture to meet the HMMWV requirement. The first prototype (a weapons carrier variant) was completed in August 1980 and sent to the Nevada Automotive Test Center for testing. AM General nicknamed the prototypes it delivered for the Army competition "Hummer," which AM General had the foresight to trademark. The vehicles underwent testing at
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland and
Yuma, Arizona. The vehicles were subjected to over 600,000 miles in trials which included off-road courses in desert and arctic conditions. On March 22, 1983, AM General was awarded the contract. The vehicle's durability and light weight were factors that led to its selection. Production kicked off in April 1984 at AM General's plant in
Mishawaka, Indiana and the first Humvees entered service by 1985. AM General was awarded an initial contract for 2,334 vehicles, the first batch of a five-year contract that would see 55,000 vehicles delivered to the U.S. military, including 39,000 vehicles for the Army. 72,000 vehicles had been delivered to the U.S. and foreign customers by the Persian Gulf War of 1991, and 100,000 had been delivered by the Humvee's 10th anniversary in 1995. In August 1989, AM General was awarded a $1 billion contract from the Army to produce 33,000 HMMWVs.
Use in combat HMMWVs first saw combat in
Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. The HMMWV was designed primarily for personnel and light cargo transport behind front lines, not as a frontline fighting vehicle. Like the previous jeep, the basic first-generation HMMWV has no armor (though armament carriers and hard-shell ambulances did have modest ballistic protection) or protection against
chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats. Nevertheless, losses were relatively low in
conventional operations, such as the
Gulf War. Vehicles and crews suffered considerable damage and losses during the
Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 because of the nature of urban engagement. However, the chassis survivability allowed the majority of those crews to return to safety, though the HMMWV was never designed to offer protection against intense small arms fire, much less
machine guns and
rocket-propelled grenades. With the rise of
asymmetric warfare and
low-intensity conflicts, the HMMWV was pressed into service in urban combat roles for which it was not originally intended. After
Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, the military recognized a need for a more protected HMMWV. AM General developed the M1114, an armored HMMWV to withstand small arms fire. The M1114 has been in production since 1996, seeing limited use in the
Balkans before deployment to the
Middle East. This design is superior to the M998 with a larger, more powerful
turbocharged engine,
air conditioning, and a strengthened
suspension system. More importantly, it has a fully
armored passenger area protected by hardened steel and
bullet-resistant glass. Humvees were sent into
Afghanistan following the
September 11 attacks, where they proved invaluable during initial operations. In the early years before
IEDs became prevalent, the vehicle was liked by troops for its ability to access rough, mountainous terrain. Some soldiers would remove features from Humvees, including what little armor it had and sometimes even entire doors, to make them lighter and more maneuverable for off-road conditions and to increase visibility. With the onset of the Iraq War, Humvees proved very vulnerable to IEDs; in the first four months of 2006, 67 U.S. troops died in Humvees. To increase protection, the U.S. military hastily added armor kits to the vehicles. Although this somewhat improved survivability, bolting on armor made the Humvee an "ungainly beast", increasing weight and putting a strain on the chassis, which led to unreliability. Armored doors that weighed hundreds of pounds were difficult for troops to open, and the newly armored turret made Humvees top-heavy and increased the danger of
rollovers. The
U.S. Marine Corps decided to start replacing Humvees in combat with Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (
MRAP) vehicles in 2007, and the U.S. Army stated that the vehicle was "no longer feasible for combat" in 2012. The HMMWV has become the vehicular backbone of U.S. forces around the world. Over 10,000 HMMWVs were employed by coalition forces during the Iraq War. The Humvee has been described as a vehicle with "the right capability for its era": designed to provide payload mobility in protected (safe) areas. However, deploying the vehicle to conflict zones where it was exposed to a full spectrum of threat which it was neither designed to operate, or be survivable in, led to adding protection at the cost of mobility and payload. An additional 50 were promised on 19 August 2022, and were delivered at an unknown date. A number of Humvees were used in the assault on the Russian
oblast of
Belgorod on 22 May 2023.
Modifications M1123 HMMWV in 2004, equipped with a bolt-on MAK armor kit In December 2004, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld came under criticism from U.S. troops and their families for not providing better-equipped HMMWVs. Rumsfeld pointed out that, before the war, armor kits were produced only in small numbers per year. As the role of American forces in Iraq changed from fighting the
Iraqi Army to suppressing the insurgency, more armor kits were being manufactured, though perhaps not as fast as production facilities were capable. Even more advanced kits were also being developed. While these kits are much more effective against all types of attacks, they weigh from and have some of the same drawbacks as the improvised armor. Unlike similar-sized civilian cargo and tow trucks, which typically have dual rear wheels to reduce sway, the HMMWV has single rear wheels because of its independent rear suspension coupled with the body design. Most up-armored HMMWVs hold up well against lateral attacks when the blast is distributed in all different directions but offer little protection from a mine blast below the truck, such as buried IEDs and
land mines.
Explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) can also defeat the armor kits, causing casualties. Mountain Warfare Training Center in March 1997, a test HMMWV drives through the snow, equipped with
Mattracks treads The armor kits fielded include the
Armor Survivability Kit (ASK),
FRAG 5,
FRAG 6, as well as upgrade kits to the
M1151. The ASK was the first fielded in October 2003, adding about to the weight of the vehicle.
Armor Holdings fielded an even lighter kit, adding only to the vehicle's weight. The Marine Armor Kit (MAK), fielded in January 2005, offers more protection than the M1114 but also increases weight. The FRAG 5 offered even more protection but was still inadequate to stop EFP attacks. The FRAG 6 kit is designed to do just that, however its increased protection adds over the vehicle over the FRAG 5 kit, and the width is increased by . The doors may also require a mechanical assist device to open and close.
surface-to-air missiles, on display at the
Paris Air Show in June 2007 Another drawback of the up-armored HMMWVs occurs during an accident or attack, when the heavily armored doors tend to jam shut, trapping the troops inside. As a result, the U.S. Army
Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center developed the Humvee Crew Extraction D-ring in 2006. The D-ring hooks on the door of the HMMWV so that another vehicle can rip the door off with a tow strap, chain, or cable to free the troops inside. The D-ring was later recognized as one of the top 10 greatest Army inventions of 2006. In addition, Vehicle Emergency Escape (VEE) windows, developed by
BAE Systems, were fielded for use on the M1114 up-armored HMMWV, with 1,000 kits ordered. , Hawaii, 2017 The soldier manning the exposed
crew-served weapon on top of the vehicle is extremely vulnerable. In response, many HMMWVs have been fitted with basic gun shields or
turrets, as was the case with
M113 APCs after they were first deployed in Vietnam. The U.S. military is currently evaluating a new form of protection, developed by BAE Systems as well as systems designed by the Army, which are already in theater. The new gunner's seat is protected by high steel plates with bulletproof glass windows. Additionally, some HMMWVs have been fitted with a remotely operated
CROWS weapon station, which slaves the machine gun to controls in the back seat so it can be fired without exposing the crew. The
Boomerang anti-
sniper system was also fielded by some HMMWVs in Iraq to immediately give troops the location of insurgents firing on them. Another weakness for the HMMWV has proven to be its size, which limited its deployment in Afghanistan because it is too wide for the smallest roads and too large for many forms of air transport compared to jeeps or Land Rover-sized vehicles (which are, respectively, 24 and 15 inches narrower). This size also limits the ability of the vehicle to be manhandled out of situations.
Alternatives The Army purchased a purpose-built armored car, the
M1117 armored security vehicle, also known as an armored personnel carrier (APC), in limited numbers for use by the
United States Army Military Police Corps. In 2007, the Marine Corps announced an intention to replace all HMMWVs in Iraq with
MRAPs because of high loss rates and issued contracts for the purchase of several thousand of these vehicles, which include the International
MaxxPro, the
BAE OMC RG-31, the BAE
RG-33 and
Caiman, and the
Force Protection Cougar, which were deployed primarily for mine clearing duties. Heavier models of
infantry mobility vehicles (IMV) can also be used for patrol vehicles. The MaxxPro Line has been shown to have the highest rate of vehicle rollover accidents because of its very high
center of gravity and immense weight.
Replacement and future The Humvee replacement process undertaken by the U.S. military focused on interim replacement with
MRAPs and long-term replacement with the
Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). The HMMWV has evolved several times since its introduction and was used in tactical roles for which it was never originally intended. The military pursued several initiatives to replace it, both in the short and long terms. The short-term replacement efforts utilized
commercial off-the-shelf vehicles as part of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) program. These vehicles were procured to replace Humvees in combat theaters. The long-term replacement for the Humvee is the JLTV which is designed from the ground up. The
Future Tactical Truck System (FTTS) program was initiated to analyze potential requirements for a Humvee replacement. Various prototype vehicles such as the
MillenWorks Light Utility Vehicle, and the
ULTRA AP have been constructed as part of these efforts. The JLTV contract was awarded to Oshkosh in August 2015. The U.S. Marine Corps issued a
request for proposals in 2013 for its Humvee sustainment modification initiative to upgrade 6,700 expanded capacity vehicles (ECVs). The Marines plan to field the JLTV but do not have enough funding to completely replace all Humvees, so they decided to continue sustaining their fleet. Key areas of improvement include upgrades to the suspension to reduce the amount of force transferred to the chassis, upgrading the engine and transmission for better fuel efficiency, enhancements to the cooling system to prevent overheating, a central tire inflation system to improve off-road mobility and ride quality, and increased underbody survivability. Testing of upgraded Humvees was to occur in 2014, with production and installation occurring from 2015 through 2018. Older A2 series Humvees make up half the current fleet, and 4,000 are to be disposed of through
foreign military sales and transfers. By 2017, the Marines' light tactical vehicle fleet is to consist of 3,500 A2 series Humvees, 9,500 ECV Humvees, and 5,000 JLTVs, with 18,000 vehicles in total. Humvees in service with the Marine Corps will be upgraded through 2030. The Marines shelved the Humvee modernization effort in March 2015 because of budget cuts. Several companies are offering modifications to maintain the remaining U.S. military Humvee fleets. Oshkosh Corporation is offering Humvee upgrades to the Marine Corps in addition to its JLTV offering, which are modular and scalable to provide varying levels of capabilities at a range of prices that can be provided individually or as complete packages. Their approach is centered around the
TAK-4 independent suspension system, which delivers greater offroad profile capability, improved ride quality, an increase in maximum speed, greater whole-vehicle durability, and restored payload capacity and ground clearance.
Northrop Grumman developed a new chassis and powertrain for the Humvee that would combine the mobility and payload capabilities of original vehicle variants while maintaining the protection levels of up-armored versions. The cost to upgrade one Humvee with Northrop Grumman's features is $145,000.
Textron has offered another Humvee upgrade option called the Survivable Combat Tactical Vehicle (SCTV) that restores mobility and survivability over armored Humvee levels. Although the SCTV costs more at $200,000 per vehicle, the company claims it can restore the Humvee for operational use, combining Humvee-level mobility and transportability with MRAP-level underbody protection as a transitional solution until the JLTV is introduced in significant numbers. One suggested future role for the Humvee is as an autonomous
unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). If converted to a UGV, the vehicle could serve as a mobile scout vehicle with armor features removed to enhance mobility and terrain accessibility, since there would be no occupants needing protection. Because there will still be tens of thousands of Humvees in the U.S. inventory after the JLTV enters service, it could be a low-cost way to build an unmanned combat vehicle fleet. Autonomy features would allow the Humvees to drive themselves and one soldier to control a "swarm" of several vehicles. The Humvee is expected to remain in U.S. military service until at least 2050. Ambulance variants of the Humvee will especially remain in active use, as the JLTV could not be modified to serve as one due to weight issues. On April 30, 2025, US Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth ordered the Secretary of the Army to "end procurement of obsolete systems, and cancel or scale back ineffective or redundant programs, including manned aircraft, excess ground vehicles (e.g., HMMWV), and outdated UAVs". The Army said it would stop procuring Humvees and JLTVs.
AM General said it would continue producing the vehicles, and it was unclear whether existing contracts would be cancelled. ==Design features==