U.S. Army awards AM General $98.7M more for Humvees despite planned phase-out

Contract Details

AM General has been awarded a $98.7 million contract modification for continued production of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), commonly known as the Humvee. The modification brings the cumulative value of the underlying contract to more than $3.2 billion.

Key contract facts:

• Awarding agency: Army Contracting Command at Detroit Arsenal, Michigan
• Bidding process: Single bid solicited; one bid received from AM General
• Contract type: Indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) agreement
• Ceiling value: Set by the Army, drawn against through individual task orders
• Work locations and funding: Determined order by order
• Contract expiration: August 28, 2027

AM General's Role

The South Bend, Indiana-based manufacturer has built the Humvee for the U.S. military for more than four decades. The vehicle has become one of the most recognizable pieces of American military hardware worldwide — a boxy, four-wheeled workhorse originally designed to replace the Jeep, capable of hauling troops, cargo, and weapons across rough terrain. It has served in virtually every American conflict since the 1991 Gulf War.

With no other manufacturer positioned to produce a compatible Humvee variant on short notice, sole-source awards like this are standard for follow-on orders under existing production contracts.

Army's Planned Phase-Out

Despite this new funding, the Army spent much of 2025 signaling its intent to exit the Humvee business entirely. Army Chief of Staff Randy George's Army Transformation Initiative directive, issued last year, explicitly called for canceling procurement of what it termed "excess ground vehicles," including:

• The HMMWV (Humvee)
• The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) — the Humvee's intended successor

This directive is part of a broader push to shift resources toward lighter, faster combat formations and modern technologies such as drones.

JLTV Production Challenges

The JLTV, built by AM General under a separate contract worth more than $8 billion (awarded in 2023), was designed specifically to replace the Humvee with a heavier, more survivable vehicle better able to withstand roadside bombs — a lesson learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, where the original Humvee's light armor left troops exposed to improvised explosive devices.

However, the JLTV program has encountered serious production difficulties:

• The Department of War has reportedly not yet accepted a single production vehicle of the upgraded A2 version
• The Marine Corps has paused its own JLTV orders
• The Marine Corps has begun searching for a second manufacturer

Continued Humvee Demand

The JLTV production gap helps explain why new Humvee funding continues despite the Army's stated intent to move on. AM General has been fulfilling a backlog of Humvee orders that extends through 2027, with a significant share of demand now coming from outside the Army's domestic fleet.

Foreign Military Sales

The company has built new Humvees under multiyear foreign military sales contracts, where the U.S. government sells American-made equipment to allied nations. Recent awards have included shipments for countries such as Lebanon, reflecting steady overseas demand for a vehicle that remains:

• Cheaper than the JLTV
• Simpler to maintain
• More widely fielded globally

Global Transition Timeline

Israel's military, which operates more than 2,000 Humvees, signed its first JLTV procurement agreement with the U.S. only in March 2025 — worth roughly $26 million for an initial batch of vehicles. This underscores how gradual and uneven the global transition away from the Humvee is likely to be, even as American forces themselves pull back.