The Pentagon’s chief weapons tester said earlier this year that he wanted to put the brakes on an effort to rush so called “blast chimney” vehicle technology to the field in US Humvees this summer, stating in his initial assessment that the design failed to provide a significant boost in protection against improvised explosive devices and could expose a vehicle gunner to blast damage, according to an internal memo obtained by Inside the Army.
The chimney technology -- designed to vent an underbody explosive through a channel in the middle of the vehicle and out the roof -- is still in testing and is being offered as a potential solution to a planned Humvee recapitalization program by AM General, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Hardwire LLC.
The Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, Michael Gilmore, questioned the push to field the technology in a February memo.
At the time, the chimney had undergone three tests.
A Defense Department spokeswoman said July 8 that Gilmore has not updated his assessment of the chimney since February and is following test results as they become available—InsideDefense.com