To look astatine the history of the Hummer we have to look to its military beginnings to get the complete story. That is right it did non start out just being a car but an HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) with 4-wheel drive for the military. This vehicle was nicknamed the Humvee. It was developed by
the AM General Company. Later after the military using it the Hummer vehicle for consumer use came out. This history will look at both the military and the consumer versions.
The U.S. Army discovered, during the 1970s, it needed more than civilian trucks converted for military use.
By 1979, the Army had drawn up specifications for a HMMWV. In July, 1979 AM General (owned by American Motors Coporation) started to work on a preliminary design, had its first prototype in less than one year, the M998 and began testing. By 1980 more than 500 vehicles were produced which included other models too.
The Army, in June of 1981 awarded a contract to AM General to develop some more prototypes for delivery to the government of the United States for testing, which led to the company getting a production contract for the initial 55,000 HMMWVs for delivery in 1985. There was more testing done on these and finally in 1989 the HMMWVs finally saw combat in the United States� encroachment of the country of Panama in the
Operation Just Cause.
This vehicle quickly became the backbone, vehicle wise that is, for the United States� forces throughout the world. During the Operation Iraqi Freedom more than 10,000 of them were used by the coalition forces, in
the encroachment of Iraq in 2003. In 2004 though, the HMMWVs came under criticism for not having enough armor to provide soldiers with enough protection (found out in Iraq invasion) for guerilla warfare. Now the U.S military is in the process of replacement the HMMWVs
