Why not buy an interim replacement for the Humvee?

[LINK] Dingo 2 (pdf document)

Yes, the US military-industrial complex likes to build its own tools of war.  That's fine, go ahead and take until 2009 to lock in on a replacement for the Humvee, with a projected roll-out in 2011. Issue a lot of development contracts (like the one given to GTRI for the AP vehicle), followed by "sources sought" and ultimately testing.  I'm sure it will be the most awesome such vehicle in the world.

In the meantime, why not select one of several existing vehicles, such as the Dingo 2, and roll it out as an interim vehicle to help the troops in 2007 (four years earlier).

OK, so it's not that sexy looking.

The Caddilac Gage division of Textron already has an agreement to produce it near New Orleans.

STOP (as early as possible) weighting down a utility vehicle with armor, causing its engine and transmission to fail prematurely, while still not providing an optimum undercarraige design to deflect IEDs.

Yeah, I've been preaching this since 2003. Guess nobody of any importance has been reading it, or buying the logic. Meanwhile, ... (well, you know).