Inside the Oshkosh JLTV, the US Army's Hummer replacement



The winner of an intense three-year competition, this snub-nosed beast is the military's new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.


  • By Matthew Phenix
  • 28 August 2015


It was a long and bumpy road for the Oshkosh Corporation and its L-ATV vehicle, but this week, the Wisconsin-based US defence contractor won a gruelling three-year competition. The prize? A $6.75b contract to build the US military's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, the successor to the long-serving High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, better known as the Hummer.

This initial contract calls for delivery of some 17,000 vehicles between 2018 and 2022, but it could ultimately be worth some $30b to the company, as the JLTV gradually replaces the US military's ageing fleet of 280,000 Hummers.

It's no small sum, but the Oshkosh JLTV is a thoroughly modern war machine, one that outperforms the Hummer in every way. Design requirements called for a new vehicle that was tougher, more capable, more versatile, easier to transport, easier to fix and above all, more protective of the soldiers and Marines who will operate it.

All it needs now is a catchy name. On that front, "Hummer" will be hard to beat.

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Off-road, the JLTV's adjustable independent suspension can provide as much as 20 inches of wheel travel. The wheels on Land Rover's Range Rover, in comparison, move about half that far.




The JLTV's available diesel-electric hybrid powertrain provides 70kW of exportable electricity — enough to power 18 average-size family homes




To prevent surface corrosion in harsh environments, JLTVs will wear a self-healing paint called polyfibroblast. The coating contains microscopic polymer spheres filled with an oily liquid. When the painted surface is scratched, the spheres break and fill the abrasion with a waxy "scar."




The JLTV is designed to maintain full mission capability at elevations as great as 12,000 feet and at temperatures as low as −40°F (−40°C) or as high as 125°F (52°C)




Oshkosh Defense will build as many as 55,000 JLTVs by 2040 — close to 50,000 of them for the US Army and the rest for the US Marine Corps.




The JLTV is designed to ford 60 inches of salt water without a fording kit, in forward and reverse. That's double the old Hummer's capability.




The JLTV's armament options include a manned turret with a 12.7mm machine gun or the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS, which allows a gunner to aim and shoot via a video-game-like interface inside the vehicle.




To be transportable by the US military's CH-53K King Stallion and CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, a loaded JLTV must tip the scales at 15,639 pounds or less.