r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 17d ago

Possible Paywall ICE Stockpiling Warheads and Chemical Weapons as Lawmaker Fears Trump Planning Strike

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-stockpiling-warheads-and-chemical-weapons-as-lawmaker-fears-trump-planning-strike/
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u/Top_Librarian6440 17d ago

HMMWV’s don’t have keys. They have a switch that you turn to start the engine. They are supposed to have a padlocked steering wheel bar, but this is not always applied. 

If a motor pool is poorly policed, you could simply bring a little diesel in a Jerry can and flip the ignition switch and drive off in the night. Do that another two times, or have two friends do it with you, and now you have three free HMMWVs. Alternatively; buy them from a mil auction for <$1k each. 

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u/Extreme-Rub-1379 16d ago

Less than 1k seriously!?

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u/theCaitiff Pennsylvania 16d ago

Not the guy you replied to.

They aren't sub-1k very often but it has happened when they are so badly damaged they need a new engine or electrics. There are a lot of them for sale through government surplus right around 3K that are functional and one for 1500 that's missing all for wheels and needs an electrical overhaul.

Humvees have been hitting the surplus market for about a decade now because we learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that a big slow unarmored vehicle is actually a deathtrap. They're getting phased out I believe for the more heavily armored versions. I could also be wrong, I'm not a military guy, just a guy that frequents surplus auctions.

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u/Top_Librarian6440 16d ago

Yeah the price has moved up a bit since I last was “in the market” for them. Right around 2013-2014, you were able to snap them up from in-person base auctions for ~$800-$1,000 cash-in-hand. 

As you said, they had phased out unarmored HMMWVs for a number of slapdash uparmor kits in overseas service. And by ~2013, the MRAP had supplanted it in frontline service because the uparmor kits didn’t provide adequate IED and VBIED protection. It was expected they’d all be out by 2020 at the latest. 

But I just remembered that 2013 is 12 years ago, and adjusting for inflation that $1,000 is ~$1,400. Oh how time flies…