The Humvee book: foreign military sales from a South Bend desk

1971 — present

The vehicles are Mishawaka's; the selling is done from here: The scope of this build is printed plainly, as the Businesses section prints it: AM General's headquarters has stood in South Bend since 1986, at 105 North Niles Avenue, while its vehicle plants stand in Mishawaka — the production is Mishawaka's record, and the corporate trade run from the South Bend seat is this city's. That trade is the largest export book in the city's modern history. The Department of Defense's own contract announcements give its form: on 6 July 2015 AM General — named in the announcement as "AM General, South Bend, Indiana" — was awarded a $372,936,476 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales contract for Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Ukraine and Tunisia, with options for 2,082 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and spare parts; the work, the announcement states, would be performed in Mishawaka.

In 2017 the company announced a five-year foreign military sales contract with a ceiling of $2.2 billion, authorizing production and sale of up to 11,560 Humvees, and within weeks orders for a quarter of that ceiling — some $550 million of trucks and parts — from nine countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Jordan, Slovenia, Bahrain, Colombia, Bosnia and Kenya. At the South Bend facility that September, the company's president and CEO, Andy Hove, told reporters that international sales had comprised half of AM General's sales for most of its history, not counting the Iraq and Afghanistan war production for the United States itself — the company's own statement, printed as such. The company's published figures put some 250,000 Humvees then operating in 50 countries; its later releases count approximately 230,000 HMMWVs in fleets around the world, about 70,000 of them in international fleets, and more than 300,000 vehicles produced and sustained in over 60 countries across the company's lines.

The flow has not stopped: defense reporting records fresh FMS production orders for Lebanon as late as September 2025 under the same standing contract structure. The company's root in this city — Studebaker's General Products Division, bought by Kaiser-Jeep in 1964 with its Army truck contract — closes the circle this section opened with: the military-vehicle trade that began with Union wagon orders in 1864 is still, a century and a half on, a South Bend export business, even though the trucks themselves are built one city east.

Sources:

1. U.S. Department of Defense, contract announcements, 6 July 2015 — AM General, South Bend, Indiana; the $372,936,476 foreign military sales contract (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Ukraine, Tunisia) with options for 2,082 HMMWVs; work to be performed in Mishawaka, Indiana.
2. Military Times, 28 September 2017 — the five-year, $2.2 billion-ceiling FMS contract for up to 11,560 Humvees; $550 million of orders from nine named countries; CEO Andy Hove at the South Bend facility on international sales as half the company's sales for most of its history; 250,000 Humvees in 50 countries on the company's data.
3. AM General contract releases (PR Newswire and the defense press) — approximately 230,000 HMMWVs in fleets worldwide, about 70,000 in international fleets, HMMWVs used by more than 60 partner nations, and more than 300,000 vehicles produced and sustained in over 60 countries; printed as the company's figures.
4. Defense reporting of September 2025 (U.S. Army Contracting Command announcements) — continued FMS HMMWV production orders, including a $13,140,694 order for Lebanon.
5. Businesses — AM General's formation in 1971 from the General Products Division, the 1986 headquarters move to South Bend, and the Mishawaka production boundary, cross-referenced and not retold here.