Back about '94 or '95 I was the Chief of Scout/Cavalry modernization at the Armor Center and we worked with the Program Manager and O'Gara Hess to develop the initial up-armored HMMWVs. Did a user test versus the original HMMWVs both cross-country and Motor-trend style on the airfield and those 12K lb beasts actually outran the lighter originals due to the 6.5 Turbo vs 6.2 NA and the 4-speed electronic transmission vs TH400. Cross-country they would plow through things that the originals bounced over. Stopping was another matter. It was a trade-off of brake pad performace vs ball joint strength. The original pad design would rip the ball joints out in a panic stop, even after going to stronger ball joints. So we accepted a little less brake performance for better ball joint reliability. I sure am glad we convinced the Army to buy the initial 2,500 up-armored HMMWVs instead of shutting the HMMWV assembly line which was the plan at the time. I had to trade some other Scout programs for them, but it was worth it.