Ukraine’s 5,000 Humvees Are Really Multipurpose – Now There’s a Mobile EW Platform

The Ukrainian military has a fleet of about 5,000 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV – Humvees) military off-road vehicles in various modifications, supplied as military aid by the US and several other countries, including Germany, Luxembourg and Slovenia.

The Humvee comes in two- and four-seater versions, both armored and unarmored, which replaced a whole range of vehicles including the original jeep, light trucks, ambulances and utility vehicles.

The vehicles are widely used in a variety of configurations fulfilling combat, logistic and support roles with multiple units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the National Guard, and special units of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) according to recent reports in the Militarnyi and the United 24 websites.

External donations of Humvees included around half a dozen basic versions compared with the more than 30 variations known to have been developed by US forces since its introduction 40 years ago.

In another example of Ukraine’s ability to innovate where they have an operational need but no vehicle that meets the requirement, they simply modify an existing platform – possessing insufficient numbers of M1035A2 and M1152 Burtek B4731 ambulance variants, they converted some themselves.

The AFU has even developed a mine clearing version that has attached Pearson Engineering “Spark” 80-kilogram (175-pound) rubber-coated mine rollers to the front of the vehicle to clear and withstand detonations from anti-tank and anti-personnel landmines.

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The Humvee has proved indispensable with its off-road capabilities and adaptability, supporting logistic support functions and as a platform for heavy weaponry. While Ukraine has received some of the armored varieties, it has up armored many itself by the Lviv Armored Plant and the Ukrainian Practika commercial company.

Ukraine has mounted multiple weapon systems on the cargo platform of the two-seater M1152 variant: including launchers for the Sivalka VM-5 and VM-8 multiple launch rocket systems; surface-to-air missile systems including the AN/TWQ-1 Avenger, FIM-92 Stinger and Vampire APKWS guided rocket launchers; mobile anti-tank platforms equipped with the Ukrainian Amulet system and the US TOW; and self-propelled 155mm howitzers based on the 2-CT Hawkeye system.

Ukraine has established an extensive Humvee repair and maintenance system, starting with brigade level field workshops, for minor repairs, to major forces command repair centers. Where there have been shortages of spares, such as brake pads, filters, and other mechanical components they have turned to locally manufactured alternatives.

The Humvee mobile battlefield EW system

A video recently surfaced that shows a four-door HMMWV covered in a “cope cage,” and with an array of roof-mounted antennas characteristic of an Electronic Warfare (EW) system that could be intended to intercept, jam, or otherwise manipulate and disrupt enemy communications, radar systems, or GPS networks – possibly associated with kamikaze drones.

It is unclear from the video whether this vehicle has been deployed already or is a prototype undergoing testing. The fitting of an EW system into the Humvee offers a versatile and mobile, cross-country capability to disrupt enemy forces – another development in Ukraine’s ongoing advanced technological fight against Russia’s numerically superior weapons systems.