Army swaps iconic Humvee for a faster, cheaper vehicle

WASHINGTON – The Army is swapping an icon – the 40-year-old Humvee – for a lighter, faster, cheaper truck designed for future battlefields.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle, more dune buggy than armored truck, is one of the most visible signs of the Army’s transition from Cold War-era equipment that has defined it for generations. The grinding insurgencies that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union demanded more and more armor to protect troops from roadside bombs.

In their place: a range of vehicles and drones that can be fielded quickly, and, in many cases, with commercial, off-the-shelf technology.

“The Humvee is the quintessential G.I. Joe vehicle,” said Alex Miller, the chief technical adviser to Army leadership for transforming its equipment. “It is the quintessential Army vehicle we’ve had in the inventory since 1985. So, 40 years of Humvee. It was good for what it was built for, which was high mobility at the time. It is not good for the fight we think we’re going to be in.”

That fight, to Pentagon officials like Miller, likely involves China and will require speed and agility to survive. Battles will also almost certainly resemble the combat sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lethal drones have turned slow-moving trucks and even tanks into death traps.

Enter the Infantry Squad Vehicle. It’s basically a stretched-out, stripped-down all-terrain vehicle without doors or a roof with seating for as many as nine soldiers. The Army plans to equip its light infantry units with the trucks, along with hundreds of drones to spy on and attack enemies.

The Army’s new signature vehicle

During World War II and for most of the 40 years that followed, the olive-drab Jeep became synonymous with the Army. The small, rugged truck crossed over into civilian use and is the ancestor of the off-road vehicles and SUVs that patrol suburbs and ferry kids to the frontlines of soccer games.

The High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle, better known as the Humvee, had another 40-year run as the Army’s workhorse truck beginning in 1985. The Pentagon bought more than 300,000 Humvees, and nearly 100,000 remain in service. Soldiers have driven them in operations from Afghanistan to Alaska. More versatile than a Jeep, the Humvee offered multiple versions, including one that could hunt and destroy a tank with a missile.

They gained infamy, though, in Iraq and Afghanistan, where insurgents relentlessly attacked their chief vulnerability: a flat bottom made of aluminum easily shredded by explosives buried in roads. Improvised explosive devices, IEDs, became the number one killer of U.S. troops in both wars.

The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, made replacing the Humvee the military’s top priority during the George W. Bush administration. The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, a heavy truck with a V-shaped hull that deflected the blast from bombs, saved the lives and limbs of thousands of troops.

In 2012, then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter released data to USA TODAY on the effectiveness of MRAPs in IED attacks.

“You are between nine and 14 times less likely to be killed if you were in an MRAP than if you were in a Humvee,” Carter said.

But the protection the MRAP offered came at the cost of speed and agility. The Pentagon bought smaller, armored trucks such as the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Though nimbler than MRAPs, JLTV’s bulk meant it couldn’t be sped to battlefields.

The Army’s new ‘Jeep’ is easier to repair

Thousands of pounds lighter and $80,000 cheaper than the Humvee, the Infantry Squad Vehicle is based on the Chevrolet Colorado truck built in Missouri. It’s basically the same truck that consumers can buy at a local dealership. Only about 20% of the Infantry Squad Vehicle’s components, including communication and electronic gear, are unique to the Army.

That’s a key difference compared to trucks such as Humvees and JLTVs, which were custom-built for the military.

“You can repair it anywhere on earth as long as you have access to commercial parts rather than a special military vehicle with special military parts,” said Miller, the Army’s top technical adviser.

Some Pentagon officials, however, acknowledge that the tradeoff for speed and expense is losing the armor that saved lives and limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Infantry Squad Vehicle represents the Army’s latest assessment of what soldiers will need for the next war.

The new drones and robots accompanying the truck can be sent ahead of it to help soldiers avoid ambushes. Speed, not armor, is what will save soldiers’ lives in the next fight, Miller said.

“The longer you sit and the slower you are, the easier it is to kill you,” he said.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle represents the Army’s best guess, based on decades of combat experience, of what will work best for future combat, according to a senior Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The vehicle isn’t meant to withstand an attack, the official said. It’s designed to whisk soldiers within a few miles of the frontline and allow them to walk a short distance to the fight.

If the Army gets drawn back into a bloody, urban fight with IEDs?

We’ll buy something else, the official said.

Michael O’Hanlon, a national security expert at the Brookings Institution, counts himself a skeptic of the ISV.

He recalled that 20 years ago, the Army sank billions into what it called Future Combat Systems. The initiative was intended to replace Abrams tanks and Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles with a fleet of manned and unmanned systems. It failed.

“Worked great on Powerpoint,” O’Hanlon said. “But the technology wasn’t there then (to find everything before it exploded or impacted) and it still isn’t.  Like Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’ll float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.’ Except the technology may not deliver.

“They had to cut something but I’m wary about this choice.”

What do soldiers think of it?

Soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division were among the first in the Army to drive the trucks. Many swear by it.

Its lighter weight, relative to a Humvee, means the Infantry Squad Vehicle can be carried by a Black Hawk helicopter for a short distance with a sling. A twin-rotor Chinook helicopter can carry two of the trucks inside its cargo bay for a greater distance. A Humvee’s weight requires a Chinook, and then just one can be carried in a sling.

On the ground, the Infantry Squad Vehicle is faster than a Humvee and more fuel-efficient. Speed helps infantry soldiers keep pace with armored units traveling to war, said Col. Trevor Voelkel, who commands the 1st Mobile Brigade Combat Team for the 101st Airborne Division. Voelkel’s brigade tested new equipment, including about 200 of the trucks, at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk in Louisiana in May.

“We’re getting back to our original concept of the Humvee,” Voelkel said. “But with a newer, lighter, more commercial vehicle that’s going to be easier to repair, cheaper to repair.”

William Melko, a 1st sergeant in Voelkel’s brigade, had experience driving other Army trucks in Afghanistan. None of them, he said, gave his soldiers a better view of potential threats around them. It’s easier to drive, too, especially for younger soldiers.

“The best way that I can describe it is like a normal pickup,” Melko said.

Last year, after Hurricane Helene swamped the southeast, Lt. Col. Jonathan Nielsen commanded a battalion of the 101st that responded to the flooding in North Carolina. His soldiers drove Infantry Squad Vehicles on damaged roads inaccessible to a Humvee, he said.

The trucks also maneuvered through city streets better than Humvees.

“ISV is going to be an iconic vehicle,” Nielsen said.

Contributing: Ramon Padilla, Graphics

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Army’s replacement for the iconic Humvee is faster, cheaper and lighter