New Tactical Vehicle not Fit for Operations

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A new US military ground vehicle was meant to replace the veteran Humvee in combat situations. Despite expectations, the new vehicle faces problems and might be declared unsuitable for operations.
The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) has been touted as the rugged, protected and highly mobile vehicle to replace some of the more vulnerable Humvees on the battlefield.
The vehicle has ballistic protection equal to the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, but is one-third lighter and 70 percent faster off road than the regular Humvee, officials said.
With this said, a report exposed serious deficiencies in the new vehicle.
For the vehicle to be “operationally suitable” means that the system can be placed in field use and be reliable and sustained within the unit and support available.
What the report found was that the close combat version is less capable of dealing with different threats such as tube launched, optically tracked and wire guided missiles than the Humvee.
The missile reload process is slow and difficult for crews, and the close combat version has less storage space than other JLTV variants. In addition, the crew has poor visibility due to blind spots around the vehicle, and accessing mission-essential equipment from the cargo area is a challenge, according to militarytimes.com.
Crews had problems getting out of the JLTV, and found reliability failures of doors not opening, therefore not letting soldiers and marines to safely enter and exit the JLTV.
Due to vehicle complexity, ineffective training, poor manuals, and challenges with troubleshooting the vehicle, units cannot maintain the JLTV without support from the contractor field service representatives.
The reliability-specific problems included engine wiring problems, flat and damaged tires and brake system faults.
Overall, the JLTV will require more maintenance than the Humvee.