Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Corps set to begin fielding ITV this summer

Whatever you do, don’t call it a jeep.

The new the Internally Transportable Vehicle, Marine officials insist, is much, much more that that old, tippy, soft-skinned, World War II-era infantry vehicle.

Soon, Marines can judge for themselves.

The Corps plans to begin fielding the new ITV — also known as the Growler — in late summer, the smallest new vehicle the Corps has added to its fleet in years. Designed specifically to fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, it’s a big shift after years of bringing on more up-armored Humvees and massive Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicles.

With features like back-wheel steering, a high-tech suspension system and a mount for a machine gun — not to mention a top speed of more than 60 mph — the Growler will be whizzing by the rest of the Corps’ overgrown, lumbering vehicles, making it the new must-have for every grunt unit that can get them.

Old school

“Although the Marines hate to call it a jeep, it looks very much like the old M151 jeep,” said Robert Work, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. That utility vehicle was produced from 1959 until 1982 and used to great effect by U.S. forces.

Primarily intended for reconnaissance Marines, the ITV will effectively replace the Interim Fast Attack Vehicle, a militarized version of a Mercedes-Benz Sport Utility Vehicle, which the Corps last purchased in 2003.

The ITV weighs about 4,000 pounds, compared to about 10,000 pounds for a Humvee. The ITV can exceed speeds of 55 mph and can carry a payload up to 2,000 pounds, Marine Corps officials said.

“Although it looks like a jeep, the engineering required for this was quite extensive,” said Mark Godfrey, the requirements officer for the Corps’ light vehicle fleet.

Those requirements revolved around a single concept — the new truck must fit inside the Corps’ rotor-wing aircraft, specifically the CH-53 Sea Stallion and the MV-22 Osprey. The inside of an Osprey is 5 feet wide, 5 feet tall and some 17 feet in length.

In flight, the new Growlers are small and light. On the ground, however, they’re soft and vulnerable. That’s why Marines probably won’t see the ITV rolling outside the wire into combat anytime soon.

“We don’t see this being used in the urban environments of Iraq. But it probably will have a utility in Afghanistan or other areas of the world where we might be deployed,” Godfrey said. “Personal body armor is the level of protection for the vehicle. Mobility and speed are really what provide the protection.”

The Corps may soon add a reinforced seat made of a Kevlar-type material, as well as provide two limited armoring kits. But officials stress that this vehicle is not intended for use in more volatile environments. The ITVs will have a pedestal for mounting a .50-caliber machine gun or other large weapon.

The Growlers have a pimped-ride flavor, thanks to a hydraulics system similar to those used by bouncy, tricked-out convertibles spotted cruising mall parking lots across America. It’s a sophisticated suspension system that drops the chassis low to the ground for more convenient transport, while the flip of a switch jacks the truck up more than a foot, providing greater wheel clearance for tough terrain.

The ITV’s have an automatic transmission, and the small wheel base affords greater mobility and access to more narrow pathways, such as urban alleys or berms separating rice fields.

One unique option allows Marines to switch to rear-wheel drive and actually steer with the back wheels, a feature that will allow easier maneuvering inside the belly of an Osprey. The back wheels lock in place at medium to high speeds to prevent malfunctions.

New ITV prototypes have been tested in the frozen tundra of Alaska and the sun-baked desert of California. A final evaluation report is due in June, clearing the way for full-scale production this summer.

By September, the Corps plans to begin fielding about 15 ITVs for each battalion, at a rate of about one battalion a month. The first shipments will go to units using Ospreys and battalions slated for deployment with a Marine Expeditionary Unit. Long-term plans call for a total of 694 Growlers, but that timeframe will hinge on annual funding levels.

Overcome by events?

The ITV has been under development for more than 10 years, first appearing on paper in 1997, years before anyone used the terms “Global War on Terror” or “improvised explosive device.”

Today, experts disagree on how practical the new vehicles will prove to be. Some weapons analysts suggest the ITV will prove more useful than originally envisioned, due to evolution of warfare during the past decade.

Humvees replaced the M151 Jeep in 1981 and signaled a move toward a larger, heavier, general purpose truck. The Humvee has grown even heavier during the past five years, as the IED threat in Iraq has led to massive up-armoring that adds up to 2,000 pounds to the vehicle’s total weight.

The added weight has raised the center of gravity of the vehicle, reducing its acceleration, handling, braking, reliability, and service life, due to its overstressed suspension and drive train.

“The Humvee’s morphed into a combat vehicle. Its weight has grown to the point where it can’t really fulfill that light utility role any more,” said Dean Lockwood, a military vehicle analyst with Forecast International in Connecticut. “Especially with the up-armor, maybe there’s even more of a need for a light vehicle.”

The fielding of the ITV will be watched closely by U.S. Special Operations Command and the Army, as well as private military contractors such as Blackwater. All have been discussing the potential need for a tactical vehicle to fill the gap created by a heavier Humvee.

Some disagree, claiming the vehicle will have little practical use. In the age of improvised explosive devices, an entirely unarmored truck is not very helpful, no matter how fast and mobile it may be, so the argument goes.

“It’ll be able to do what it was designed to do, but not much more,” Work said.

Moreover, the engineering constraints needed to make this truck fit inside an MV-22 or a CH-53 will affect its performance on the ground.

“I can tell you that the old M151 was very subject to tipping over,” Work said. “If you were going at any speed and had four people in there and took a corner, you were in trouble. With a vehicle that small and that narrow, you’re going to have some trade-offs. It’s going to be very interesting to see how well this vehicle performs in the type of terrain that the Marines usually operate in.”

Work also said the future of the ITV may hinge on how the Corps actually uses its MV-22 Ospreys. The Ospreys deployed last year to Iraq were used mostly for re-supply and troop transport missions.

“Will you use it for deep insertions? Or will the V-22 become more useful for repositioning forces?” Work said.

The Osprey has a longer range than a traditional helicopter, but for potentially “hot” landing zones facing any kind of surface-to-air missiles, the Osprey’s massive size is a distinct disadvantage, critics said.

“If all you’re going to use it for is re-supply,” Work said, “then the ITV doesn’t really buy you anything.”