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Welcome to Desert Box, an in-depth web page informing you, the
reader, about everything you wanted to know about AM General's Hummer.
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The history of the Hummer began in the ranks of the U.S. military 20
years ago. As the logistics of modern warfare changed, so did the military's
needs for mobility and flexibility. The militarized civilian trucks in
use no longer satisfied the rigorous demands of the U.S. Armed Forces.
They required a new breed of vehicle.
In 1979, the U.S. Army drafted a document outlining its requirements
for a High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle, or HMMWV. It needed
to be agile. It needed to be be able to go places that defied the imagination.
And it needed to last a minimum of 12 years under the most unforgiving
conditions. In July of that year, AM General Corporation began preliminary
design work. An impossibly short 11 months later, the first prototype,
the M998, was already in testing.
In June 1981, the Army awarded AM General a Phase 1 request contract
for development of several more prototype vehicles to be delivered to the
U.S. government for another series of even more exhaustive and grueling
tests. These AM General prototypes proved to be the muscular new breed
of vehicle the Army had been looking for. As a result, the company was
awarded the initial production contract for 55,000 HMMWVs for delivery
in 1985.
In the years since, the AM General HMMWV has proven to be a valuable
asset in the military's arsenal. Given the name "Humvee" by soldiers, this
unstoppable vehicle has played a critical role in military actions around
the globe. All told, more than 150,000 HMMWVs have been produced for the
U.S. Armed Forces and friendly overseas armies.
It was only a matter of time before the Humvee's extraordinary powers
were called upon by the nonmilitary sector. AM General's 1991 decision
to sell to the public finally allowed nonmilitary personnel to experience
the exceptional off-road performance and problem-solving abilities of a
military-based utility vehicle. Save for a few comfortable and practical
refinements, the Hummer is virtually unchanged from its much-storied military
counterpart. All of the power, durability and versatility of the military
Humvee is available to you in the Hummer, the world's ultimate off-road
vehicle.
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