History
The HUMVEE can be called the father of all the hummers. Humvee is actually the pet name of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle or HMMWV. It was made for the us army AM General which was a subsidiary of the American Motor Corporation in 1979.
In 1970's the us army felt that the army trucks then used were outdated and that they couldn't satisfy the requirements of the us army. It was in 1979 that the Army drafted the final specifications for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. The same year
in the month of July, the AM General began preliminary design work on the project, and less than a year later, the first prototype, the M998, was in testing.
The army then gave contract to AM General for the development and delivery of more prototypes of the vehicle for further testing. This was in 1981 June. After this the company got the contract for the delivery of 55000 humvees by the year 1985. It was in 1989 that the vehicle came to the combat scene for the United States invasion of Panama which was codenamed Operation Just Cause.
Features
The Humvee has got portal axles. This is an off road technology where the axle tube is above the center of the wheel hub. This gives the vehicle a higher ground clearance as both the axle tube and the differential casing of the vehicle are tucked up higher under the vehicle. This allows an axially delivered central tire inflation system.
More than 17 different variants of the vehicle are being used in the US for different applications including carrying missiles, cargo, carrying troops, ambulance, direct air support vehicle and many more. It also has the capability of fording 2.5 feet in water normally. With a deep water fording kit installed, it has the capability of fording through 5 feet of water. Also optional equipments like winches and armors can be fitted. The M1025 and M1043/M1044 armament carriers can be used for mounting and firing purposes using the MK19 grenade launcher,the M2 heavy machine gun, the M240G/B machine gun and M249 SAW.
