Northrop Grumman Pitching New Humvee Chassis to Army - Blog: Northrop Grumman has designed a new Humvee chassis that would restore the vehicle’s original mobility and payload capabilities while maintaining its current level of protection, a company executive announced Oct. 7.
The service has not signed on those upgrades yet, but Northrop executives hope that its performance in testing will convince the Army to invest in the new chassis, said Greg Schmidt, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman Technical Services’ mission solutions and readiness division.
The threat of improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted the Army to outfit its fleet with heavy, but protective, armor. “What this did is it greatly degraded or limited the capabilities of the Humvee,” including decreased fuel economy and mobility, he told journalists at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
That, in turn, resulted in a longer logistical tail, including more fuel tankers and larger convoys, Schmidt said. “You can see where this really becomes a spiral.”
The company has already installed the new chassis on four vehicles through a cooperative agreement with the Army, two of which have been delivered to the service for trials, he said. Northrop is putting the other two vehicles through endurance testing at sites in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada.
The new chassis enables the vehicle to accelerate to 66 miles per hour in 22 seconds and increases gas mileage to 18 miles per gallon, he said. Northrop is working with automobile component manufacturer Meritor Corp. and Pratt & Miller Engineering. Cummins is supplying the engine.
