Humvee recap competition heating up.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Tactical Vehicles

MOUNT AIRY, N.C.-- Just a few streets down from the birthplace of actor Andy Griffiths sits a former textile manufacturing facility that today houses a start-up company that is aiming to challenge powerful military contractors.

If all goes well for Granite Tactical Vehicles in the next few months, this bucolic town, once better known as the inspiration for the fictional TV town of Mayberry, could become one of the Defense Department's newest suppliers of tactical trucks.

The Army and Marine Corps are gearing up for a program potentially worth billions to modernize the Pentagon's 25-year-old Humvee fleet. The utility truck was employed in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until roadside bombs became too deadly for the flat-bottomed vehicle. Though supplanted in recent years by the hardier mine-resistant ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicle, the Humvee still comprises the bulk of the truck inventory in the Defense Department's fleets. There are nearly 200,000 Humvees fielded throughout the services and the National Guard.

The Army and Marine Corps want to keep the workhorse Humvee in service longer until they can develop a replacement truck. They have already pursued a program to repair and refurbish thousands of war-tom vehicles. But there are still about 60,000 trucks in the Army, and about 4,000 Humvees in the Marine Corps that are considered too young for the scrap heap. They also are under-protected for fighting in future environments where roadside bombs will continue to be a threat. Both services want to recapitalize those vehicles and upgrade their underbelly blast protection so they are no longer obsolete and sitting unused in motor pools.

Companies including the original manufacturer of the Humvee--AM General based in South Bend, Ind.--have been designing and testing a variety of solutions to help the Defense Department breathe new life into the truck.

Granite, a newcomer to the tactical wheeled vehicle business, has developed a capsule that can be mounted on existing Humvees that company officials say will provide troops with better blast protection while reducing the weight of the vehicle.

"The objective was, let it be a Humvee, nose to nose, and you don't realize it's not a normal Humvee until it drives by you," said Chris Berman, president of Granite Tactical Vehicles.

The company's survivable combat team vehicle, or SCTV, comprises a Humvee frame encapsulated by a welded steel monocoque hull.

Officials invited National Defense to drive one of its production-ready vehicles around a two-mile off-road test track not far from its headquarters. Nestled on 60 acres of hillside property leased from a nearby rock quarry, the red-dirt trail winds its way past cornfields and forested glens, challenging the vehicles with hair-pin curves, four-foot high berms, smaller bumps and other suspension-rattling terrain.

Behind the wheel, the 16,500-pound vehicle is simple enough for a civilian driver to operate without prior training. Power steering and automatic transmission make it easy to handle, and the vehicle rides like a Humvee on steroids. It seems to float over the terrain as it maneuvers on the track. It eases over mounds angled so steeply that the bumper scoops up dirt when it bottoms out and the V-hull cuts a distinctive mark into the tops like an unforgiving barber.

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Though the vehicle sits only a few inches taller than current uparmored Humvees, blast tests have shown that it offers MRAP-like protection to the crew. Compared to riding in a thin-skinned Humvee, the SCTV ride is smooth, the cabin is quiet, dust-free and contoured to prevent unnecessary nicks and bruises.

The capsule technology defies the problem that has confounded many manufacturers--how to make a vehicle blast-resistant yet lighter weight. Often those qualities stand at polar opposites.

"Since we got rid of the existing body, we didn't have to work around the carcass that had weight to it," said Berman. "The design allowed us to defeat the requirements without too much additional steel."

The team reached into both the automotive industry in the Detroit area and the motorsports racing expertise in Charlotte, N.C., for insight as it pursued development of...