HMMWV M1114 UAH (Up-Armored Humvee)

The M1114 UAH (Up-Armored Humvee) was a purpose-built version of the Humvee family line intended to provide better protection for crew and systems alike. Based on the successes of the up-armored M1109 HMMWV vehicle, the M1114 featured a revised armor allocation with protection from various points across the base HMMWV design. The M1109 was debuted in May of 1994 and saw action in Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia. The M1114 was designed at built to fulfill a US Army request for a similar purpose-built vehicle based on the M1113 ECH Humvee model. AM General provided the basic Humvee frame while armor allocation was handled by the experts at O'Gara-Hess Eisenhardt. The prototype emerged as the XM1114.

The XM1114 underwent a series of ballistics trials to test the validity of the concept beginning in September of 1995. Armor was integrated into the existing Humvee frame and consisted of welded aluminum, composite and steel. Basic armor protection allowed for the stoppage of 7.62mm ammunition from up to 100 yards away. The forward-underside of the vehicle could withstand a blast from a 12-lb mine while the rear of the vehicle could withstand up to a 4-lb mine blast. Additionally, all-around protection allowed the vehicle and crew to survive fragmentation blasts from a 155mm artillery piece. While the exterior received attention, the interior was also revised to feature fragmentation-defeating armor should any munitions penetrate into the cabin. Experimental XM114 vehicles found their way into live-fire tests in Bosnia-Herzegovina in December of 1995. The first production M1114 UAH was made available in January of 1996.

The M1114 featured a 360-degree traversable weapon ring mount for fitting an array of approved weapon systems. This could include the Browning M2HB .50 caliber machine gun, the M240 or M60 7.62mm general purpose machine guns, the M249 5.56mm SAW or the Mk 19 Mod 3 40mm automatic grenade launcher. Additionally, it was possible - albeit more rare - to see an M1114 fitting the M134 6-barreled minigun or GAU-19/A 3-barreled Gatling gun. Early M1114 deliveries offered little in the way of protection to the weapon operator and thusly, later M1114 systems fitted a more helpful forward-facing armor shield kit courtesy of O'Gara-Hess Eisenhardt. A revised and improved three-sided armor kit was made available in 2004. All early M1114 systems had this revised armor protection system retrofitted.

The M114 has since proven ultimately helpful in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan where the vehicle can face attack from a variety of weapons and munitions from any direction at any given moment - leaving many of her crew the chance to fight another day even when the M1114 they're in is listed as a total loss.

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Last Updated: 7/2/2009