The SPECTRE is a lightweight all-terrain vehicle originally intended to replace the
AM General
AM General is an American heavy vehicle and contract automotive manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. It is best known for the civilian Hummer H1, Hummer and the military Humvee that are assembled in Mishawaka, Indiana. For a relatively brie ...
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (
HMMWV
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...
) in some roles. As development of the Joint All-Terrain Modular Mobility Asset (JAMMA) vehicle (later renamed SPECTRE) progressed, the type became more focused on long range patrol and special forces type roles. According to
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
, the SPECTRE is no longer marketed, and none are known to have been sold.
History
The TAC-V Joint All-Terrain Modular Mobility Asset (JAMMA) family of vehicles has origins that date back to 2005. The vehicle was part-designed by Brook Banham from
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
-based design consultanc
MIDDLECOTT DESIGN and was initially promoted as a replacement for the
AM General
AM General is an American heavy vehicle and contract automotive manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. It is best known for the civilian Hummer H1, Hummer and the military Humvee that are assembled in Mishawaka, Indiana. For a relatively brie ...
High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (
HMMWV
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...
or
Humvee
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...
) and also as capable of internal transport by the
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
V-22 Osprey
The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...
tilt-rotor aircraft.
The rights to produce the design were acquired from
North Hollywood
North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
-based TAC-V
by
Force Protection, Inc., and was first shown publicly as a Force Protection product in February 2010 at the
Association of the United States Army
The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) is a private, non-profit organization that serves as the professional association of the United States Army. Founded in 1950, it has 121 chapters worldwide. Membership is open to everyone, not ju ...
(AUSA) Winter Convention.
![JAMMA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/JAMMA.jpg)
In December 2011 it was announced that
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
(GD) had completed the acquisition of Force Protection, Inc. for around $360 m, the acquisition first disclosed in November 2011.
General Dynamics Land Systems Force Protection (GDLS) continued with the development of JAMMA, which by now had been ruled out of any
HMMWV
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...
replacement competition, since emerging specifications required more payload and greater protection. In June 2012, the United States Special Operations Command (
SOCOM) expressed interest in procuring
Non Developmental Item (NDI) vehicles that would be highly mobile, V-22 transportable platforms. The marines were also seeking a replacement for the M1161
Growler ITV, running parallel with SOCOM's efforts to develop a new Osprey-transportable vehicle. In August 2012, the design (re-branded as SPECTRE) was offered to meet the SOCOM
Ground Mobility Vehicle 1.1 (GMV 1.1) requirement.
At this time GDLS marketed the SPECTRE in Narrow Track Configuration (NTC - V-22 compatible) and Wide Track Configuration (WTC – CH-47 compatible). According to GDLS the SPECTRE is no longer marketed.
Description
The SPECTRE (previously JAMMA) vehicles are designed around a modular skateboard-type
chassis
A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...
fitted with a modular mission adaptable body.
The original JAMMA design was internally transportable by V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft,
and was demonstrated with
hybrid
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
diesel-electric drive,
electric drive, and the capability to generate in excess of 20 kW of continuous export power. A wider variant that is internally transportable by CH-47
Chinook helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
was also developed. In addition to internal transport, the Spectre was also designed to be transported as an underslung load.
The base design is
modular
Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...
and could be configured to suit a variety of specialist roles, these including utility, gun truck and rescue. Other options included exportable power, various winches, air compressor kits and hybrid or electric drive.
Two operators are seated behind the driver and commander, the rear platform hosting the machine gunner and at least two other personnel (maximum seating is for
seven). The rear platform carries a roll-over cage that is much taller than the front part of the vehicle (for air transport the cage can be collapsed by hand in less than 90 seconds from 2.80metres to 1.82).
The design offers rollover protection (
ROPS
Rops may refer to:
People
* Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), French writer and historian
* Félicien Rops (1833–1898), Belgian artist
Places
* Rops (peak), a mountain in Kosovo
Sports
* Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS), a Finnish football club
Tech ...
) as standard, with scalable protection optional. An
armour
Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...
attachment system is built-in at the design stage.
Suspension
Suspension or suspended may refer to:
Science and engineering
* Suspension (topology), in mathematics
* Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics
* Suspension of a ring, in mathematics
* Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...
is fully independent coil-sprung and of the double A-arm type. Optional mobility enhancements included run-flat inserts and a central tyre inflation system (CTIS). Quoted standard tyre size for WTC variants is 37 × 25.50R 16.5, and for NTC variants is 285/70 R17.
Similar vehicles
General Dynamics Flyer
The Flyer Advanced Light Strike Vehicle platform has been developed by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS), in partnership with Flyer Defense LLC, for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Ground Mobility Vehicle Program ...
/ Flyer 60 and Flyer 72.
Navistar Special Operations Tactical Vehicle (SOTV).
Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK) Flyer.
Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK)
Spider
Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...
.
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
Medium Assault Vehicle – Light (MAV-L).
Oshkosh Special Purpose All-Terrain Vehicle (S-ATV).
HDT Global
Storm Search and Rescue Tactical Vehicle
The Storm Search and Rescue Tactical Vehicle (SRTV) is an all-terrain light military vehicle developed by the United States. It was the winner of the Guardian Angel Air-Deployable Rescue Vehicle (GAARV) competition awarded by the Air Force Life Cy ...
.
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...
Wolf (Defender XD)
WMIK / RWMIK.
Supacat
SC Group is a British multi-faceted engineering company which prior to a re-brand in September 2015 was known as Supacat Limited. Supacat was established in 1981 and based at Dunkeswell Aerodrome in England. SC Group now comprises four companie ...
LRV 200.
Supacat
SC Group is a British multi-faceted engineering company which prior to a re-brand in September 2015 was known as Supacat Limited. Supacat was established in 1981 and based at Dunkeswell Aerodrome in England. SC Group now comprises four companie ...
Jackal (vehicle)
The Jackal or MWMIK (from "Mobility Weapon-Mounted Installation Kit") is a family of vehicles designed and developed by Supacat Ltd at their factory in Honiton, Devon, UK, for use by the British Army and Royal Air Force Regiment.
The primary ...
.
References
External links
*
* (from 45 secs to end)
{{DEFAULTSORT:General Dynamics Land Systems Force Protection JAMMA SPECTRE light vehicle
Military vehicles of the United States
General Dynamics