The 1983 contract — and the government's own warning

1983 – 1984

The award: On 22 March 1983 the Army awarded AM General the production contract: $1.2 billion, multiyear, for 55,000 vehicles in five basic models and fifteen configurations over five years, 39,000 of them for the Army itself, with a first increment of 2,334 vehicles. It was the contract that fixed the company's future and the Mishawaka plant's: the Humvee would be built in the converted bus building on McKinley Highway, and it has been built there, in the specialist history's flat statement, ever since — all production military HMMWVs were built in this building.

The GAO's finding: The government's own auditors entered a caution that belongs in the record at full size. In report NSIAD-84-136, dated 12 June 1984, the Government Accountability Office concluded that the Army's production decision was premature on reliability grounds — the vehicle was committed to production before its durability had been proven to the standard the auditors required. The finding is printed here as the auditors made it: a documented, contemporaneous qualification on the program's start, neither a verdict on the vehicle that resulted nor a detail the celebratory accounts carry. Production proceeded on the Army's schedule.

Sources:

1. Humvee reference history and Army contract record — the 22 March 1983 award, $1.2 billion, 55,000 vehicles, five models and fifteen configurations, 39,000 for the Army, the 2,334-vehicle first increment.
2. U.S. Government Accountability Office, NSIAD-84-136 (12 June 1984) — the premature-production conclusion on reliability grounds.
3. Military Trader (Doyle), "The Birth of AM General" — all production military HMMWVs built in the Mishawaka building.