Kaiser Buys In
In 1953, Henry J. Kaiser, looking for success after a failed automotive venture and expansion of his worldwide manufacturing interests, purchased Willys-Overland. He renamed the organization Willys Motors, and the company maintained its presence in the civilian, government, and military fields.
In the 1960's, the company won the approval to design and produce 14,000 new 1/4-ton delivery vans for the postal service. These box trucks were the first of many vehicles that the company would build for the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1963, Kaiser Jeep Corporation eliminated the Willys Motors brand. The move was intended to place Jeep under the Kaiser corporate umbrella. With the demise of Studebaker Corporation in 1964, Kaiser immediately purchased Studebaker's Chippewa Avenue assembly plant in South Bend, Indiana. The reasons were obvious-Kaiser Jeep could expand and assume production of the M39 5-ton truck series. Jeep quickly won another contract for the production of the M44 deuce-and-a-half trucks. Both of these contracts equaled 262,000 units. Later, a new M715 1 1/4-ton Jeep pickup was produced to replace the older M37 series. The military business was good for both Kaiser and Jeep.
Two important events happened in 1967 for Kaiser Jeep. First, the company decided to form a separate division aimed directly at the government vehicle contract arena. The new division would research, develop, test, and produce government-engineered vehicles.
Second, the postal service returned to Kaiser to bid on a new 1/4-ton delivery vehicle. The Jeep DJ-5 Dispatcher was the contracted result with more than 150,000 units produced.
In a move to expand profitability, American Motors Corporation purchased all of the assets of Kaiser Jeep in 1970. Kaiser was now out of the picture, and the Jeep brand remained.
American Motors combined Kaiser's original Commercial and General Product Divisions to form AM General as a way to achieve the independence and flexibility to fulfill the special transportation needs of both the U.S. government and nationwide commercial markets.
The Humvee Debuts
In 1979 AM General marked the beginnings of design work on the M998 series High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), which became known as the Humvee, and then as the Hummer in the civilian world.
The Humvee concept was unique in that it was a single platform designed to replace the established M151, along with other light-tactical vehicle platforms. The Humvee was a specialized mechanized-platform engineered for extreme mobility, agility, and higher speed needed to support its multifunctional platforms. The initial prototype contract was completed in 1981, with development and prototype testing completed during a five-month period the following year.
AM General won the initial five-year contract, worth $1.2 billion, in March 1983 for 55,000 trucks. The Humvee was produced in five basic platforms utilizing fifteen different configurations over a five-year period. Fifteen-thousand additional units were added for a total platform order of 70,000 units. Delivery began in 1985 with the initial contract ending in 1989.