FORT STEWART, Ga. – Soldiers and Marines participated in a training exercise where they tested the family of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, facilitated by the U.S. Army Operational Test Command, on Fort Stewart, Ga., in October.

The JLTVs are being developed to help improve safety and mission effectiveness for service members.

“When we put all the armor on the Humvee we lost a lot of performance and it couldn’t carry as much payload,” said Randall Fincher, the OTC test officer for the JLTV testing.

The JLTV is designed to regain those losses and maintain or improve protection, added Fincher.

“We have 30 JLTVs out here from three different vendors, all prototypes, all running concurrently,” said U.S. Army Col. Ron McNamara, a director with the OTC. “Make no mistake – this is a very large test.”

Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, out of Fort Stewart, Ga.; soldiers from the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a U.S. Army Reserve unit out of Hawaii; and Marines of 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had the opportunity to use the vehicles through several mission cycles and provided feedback during the testing program.

Marine Sgt. Lawrence Luncan, a mortarman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said the testing was a great opportunity.

“We’re actually going to have a say so, somewhat, in what we get in the future,” said Luncan, a native of Sarasota, Florida.

Fincher, said, “I think they’ll have a tremendous impact on the design of the vehicle based on the soldiers’ input and the data we capture in the [operational testing].”

“It was already a good fighting vehicle, now it’s going to be a great fighting vehicle because of our input,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Tayler Cole, and infantryman with 3-7 Inf., who also participated in the testing.

Fincher said the vehicles had been through other testing phases previously, but this instance is different.

“It’s important to put soldiers and Marines in it because you don’t get the operational environment at the test centers,” said Fincher. “They drive it differently than professional drivers.”

“They figure out ways to make things work or not work that you’d never dream of in a laboratory, so you have to get this equipment into the hands of soldiers and then do an operational test,” said McNamara, adding with a grin, “See if it’s soldier proof.”

Each mission presented an opportunity to test the JLTV’s capabilities and to provide data to help improve the vehicle’s potential.

“I challenged the soldiers doing this test to really give us their honest feedback because that’s what decisions are going to be made on,” said McNamara. “What you don’t want are soldiers to drive it like it’s a borrowed Lamborghini. We want them to use it like they will in a combat situation.”

“We had the opportunity to give them feedback whenever we needed to,” said Cole, a native of Hickory, North Carolina. “It felt pretty good because they’re going to take that and turn it into a better fighting vehicle.”

Soldiers used the vehicles for a variety of maneuvers which included off road use, towing, and pushing cars off the road with the JLTVs during combat training scenarios.

Luncan said he was glad to have a chance to train against an Army unit to see the differences in tactics and procedures in a practical training exercise.

Luncan added the Marines took the testing seriously because it affects future generations of the Marine Corp.

“Overall I think the JLTVs are way better than the Humvee,” added Cole. “I hope they get them to us as fast as they can.”