Production of Up-Armoured HMMWVs Extended Through 2005

O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt is displaying one of its MI 114 Up-Armoured HMMWV (High-Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles) at Eurosatory, for which it has been awarded a contract extension for production through the year 2005. A rate of 360 vehicles a year is budgeted, and production could exceed 3000 vehicles. Including options, the contract can mean as much as $200 million to O'Gara over its five-year life.

The Up-Armoured HMMWV is used by the US Army for reconnaissance and military police patrols, and has been deployed successfully in peacekeeping roles in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo. Up-Armoured HMMWVs provide crew protection against 7.62 mm armour-piercing ammunition, overhead airburst protection against fragmentation from a 155 mm shell, and blast protection against anti-tank mines.

Currently, more than 600 Up-Armoured HMMWVs are operating as part of the U.S. Army's contingent within the UN peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, and have logged in excess of 6 million miles there. In 1997, three American soldiers walked away unharmed from their Up-Armoured HMMWV after it detonated a 14-pound anti-tank mine in northern Bosnia.

To meet the emerging requirements of the digital battlefield, where premiums have been placed on awareness, agility and crew protection, O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt is working to integrate into the MI 114 Up-Armoured HMMWV land navigation systems, Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR), a remote weapon system, and advanced communication and surveillance electronics.

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