Commando Jeep (Photo: Hendrick Dynamics)

Commando Jeep (Photo: Hendrick Dynamics)

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Were it not for efforts by the U.S. military to develop a lightweight, unarmored, all-terrain vehicle for the battlefield there might not be a market for SUVs today. It all began 75 years ago last December when the United States military adopted the 'jeep', and while the iconic military vehicle was phased out and replaced by the Humvee – the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) in the early 1980s – the Regular army could go full circle and bring back the jeep.

Final year the Army began gearing up its Footing Mobility Vehicle Program for financial 2017. It was role of the Ground forces's Gainsay Vehicle Modernization Strategy that sought to procure lightweight combat vehicles for infantry brigade gainsay teams. The vehicles considered audio very much like what first entered service back in 1940.

The Origins of the Jeep

The U.S. Army saw the need for such a go-anywhere iv-wheel vehicle when it went "Over There" to France during the First World War. The Four Wheel Drive Machine (FWD) and Thomas B. Jeffery Company supplied the military with the showtime four-bicycle drive trucks, but with another war looming military planners saw a need for a new calorie-free, cross-land reconnaissance vehicle. In July 1940 the Army formalized its requirements, which were submitted to 135 U.S. car manufacturers.

In the end but two companies – the American Runted Car Company and Willys-Overland Motors – entered the process, while Ford Motor Company joined the contest a little later on. In the terminate Bantam won the bid, and did evangelize a prototype known as the "Blitz Buggy" to the U.S. Ground forces for testing. However, Bantam lacked the product capacity needed on the calibration of the War Department, so Willys and Ford each were sent blueprints and adult their own respective prototypes. In the finish Willys won the contract due its design having the more powerful engine, merely it also featured elements from the Bantam and Ford designs.

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During Globe War 2 Willys-Overland produced some 363,000 'jeeps' but as information technology couldn't meet the production target, Ford then produced another 280,000. The actual name is itself still debated – with some suggesting information technology was a term used by Army mechanics for whatsoever untried vehicle during testing, but some other story is that information technology was named after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye cartoons. Finally, some other story is that it came almost from the acronym "GP" for "General Purpose."

Ford unsuccessfully sued Willys over the name, which Willys retained and used to market its commencement Noncombatant Jeep – the CJ – the offset mass-produced 4x4 vehicle for the civilian market.

"The 'jeep' has an enduring legacy partly because they were the first of a kind, were used all over the globe in WWII and their impact and was pregnant," Randy Withrow, director of The U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville, Alabama, told FoxNews.com.

Humvee and Other 'Jeep' Replacements

The 'jeep' as the main low-cal get-anywhere vehicle served through the Korean and Vietnam Wars, although it went through numerous upgrades and updates. By the 1980s, however, the U.S. military began to seek alternative options, and opted for a larger vehicle that could do what the 'jeep' did but could too have on the duties of other light military wheeled vehicles.

Paratroopers finish connecting a Humvee to a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during slingload training on Fort Bragg, N.C., Jan. 20, 2016. (Army photo by Sgt. Chad Haling)

Paratroopers finish connecting a Humvee to a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during slingload training on Fort Bragg, Northward.C., January. xx, 2016. (Army photograph by Sgt. Republic of chad Haling)

The result was the aforementioned Humvee, which had its baptism of fire in Functioning Simply Crusade, the U.Southward. invasion of Panama in 1989. The irony was that this was likewise to be the terminal war machine operation for the 'jeep', which had been in service since 1940.

"The workhorse small utility vehicle for the past many years has been the Loftier Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles made by AM General," Brad Curran, aerospace and defense industry master analyst at Frost & Sullivan, told FoxNews.com.

"The HUMMWV was a replacement for several vehicles, including the Vietnam War era Ford MUTT – last of the jeeps to my mind – merely also the weapons carrier, the Gama Goat and the Mule," Withrow told FoxNews.com. "All the compromises and combinations resulted in a vehicle that was 'huge' by jeep standards."

Now after 25 years in service it is apparent the Humvee can't practise information technology all. Information technology won't exactly be the end of the road for the Humvee, but the armed forces may be putting drivers backside the wheel of other, more than versatile alternative vehicles.

"Many of these units volition start to exist phased out past the new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) made by Oshkosh," added Frost & Sullivan's Curran. "In addition, special operations control operates diverse minor engine and electrical vehicles made by recreational off road makers like Polaris and others."

The JLTV isn't the beginning vehicle to offering an culling option to the Humvee – as the armed services already has the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected or MRAP, the special armored vehicles that were designed to counter state mines. From 2007 until 2012 some 12,000 MRAPs were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just every bit the MRAP didn't replace the Humvee the JLTV won't supersede information technology either.

"This isn't a consummate replacement for the Humvee," Dan Wasserbly, editor at Jane'south, told FoxNews.com. "The Ground forces is merely looking for a vehicle that has greater tactical mobility. Something that is lighter and faster than a mod Humvee."

Information technology is instead about finding the right vehicle for the job. What the MRAP provided in armor and protection was outset by a lack of mobility.

"What we accept seen from the contempo conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is that 1 size doesn't fit all uses, specially when it is a big wide platform like the Humvee," Wasserbly added. "The threat is different and the armed services needs to weigh its options. The MRAP also isn't ideal for humanitarian missions, as it is too big to fit down many tight streets."

Back to Small Tactical Vehicles

Thus with the JLTV program the military may be going back to small and lighter vehicles that can provide greater mobility. Earlier this year the Army ordered an initial batch of the one-half truck/half-'jeep' like vehicles.

"With the JLTV Oshkosh has delivered the vehicle the war machine needs," Col. John Bryant, USMC (Retired), senior vice president of defense force programs for Oshkosh Defense, told FoxNews.com. "The JLTV provides the ballistic protection of a light tactical tank, the mine resistance of an MRAP and the off-road capabilities of a Baja racer. Information technology is mobile enough that it can be airlifted where it is needed, and the JLTV is very modular and scalable so that the command tin can determine how to best employ it in the field."

The JLTV is in its initial production stage, and throughout 2019 the armed forces will be conducting alive burn down and reliability testing. Moreover, the JLTV was just i of several options considered, and the U.Southward. Army had looked at vehicles from Polaris, Lockheed Martin and Boeing-MSI Defense.

Before this year the U.S. Army had negotiations with Hendrick Dynamics, which developed a modified low-cal off-road vehicle built on the Jeep Wrangler with a modified JP-eight diesel engine. This Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) vehicle was dubbed the Commando and is now officially designated the Grand Mobility Vehicle (GMV).

"We're correct in the transition to low-cal mobility for our military," Marshall Carlson, Hendrick Dynamics' general manager, told FoxNews.com. "This is much lighter than the JLTV, and it won't exist armored – it is what is existence called a 'amend boot.' The GMV is for those low-cal infantry and airborne infantry that tin merely move across the battleground past walking at 3mph. This is literally a people mover that tin can become anywhere."

What besides makes the GMV program notable is that Hendrick Dynamics is contracting the Jeeps from Chrysler, which is bringing the iconic vehicle dorsum to the battlefield.

"Chrysler has been a great supporter of this programme," added Carlson, "These are the consign versions with the diesel engines, and nosotros're modifying these for the military to provide that needed mobility. We think this is a game changer and 1 that literally went dorsum to the future and took some other expect at the jeep."