Military light utility vehicle

A military light utility vehicle is a small, jeep-like four-wheel drive vehicle designed for military use. They are usually short and relatively light compared to other trucks and cars, are unarmored and have short body overhangs for all-terrain mobility and at least 4 passenger capacity.

Civilian adaptations of the Willys MB Jeep and Land Rover were the first sport utility vehicles, and some SUVs such as the Chevy Blazer have been used as Military Light Utility Vehicles.

The importance of this class of military vehicle was summed up by General Dwight Eisenhower who said that the four most important US weapons in World War II were the C-47 Skytrain, the bazooka, the jeep, and the atom bomb, and similar vehicles are among the most common military vehicles in armies of most nations.

Jeep-class vehicles

The Willys MB Jeep of World War II used by the U.S. Army is perhaps the most widely known vehicle of this class. Over 640,000 Jeeps were built for World War II, and they inspired many vehicles similar in layout, or function. The M38A1 Jeep was used in the Korean War. It was followed by the M151, which was designed with Ford. By the mid-1980s, this role would be taken over by the larger Humvee, which would be used as a combat vehicle in Iraq. The United States also purchased Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicles based on commercially available light trucks. U.S. forces are currently defining the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle which would be designed to be armored from the outset, with the smallest 4-person payload capacity class corresponding to the traditional jeep role.

Utility vehicle

A utility vehicle is a vehicle, generally motorized, that is designed to carry out a specific task with more efficacy than a passenger vehicle. It commonly refers to a truck with low sides. A jeep is a type of light utility vehicle, originally used by the military, with four-wheel drive for travelling over rough terrain.

Types of utility vehicles

Armored Utility Vehicle

This type of vehicle is mainly used by military and also called as military utility vehicle. It mainly consists of vehicles like military tanks, trucks, etc.

Sport Utility Vehicle

Traditionally, these are vehicles similar to a station wagon but they are built on a light-truck chassis and equipped with four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive amongst other off-road hardware. Their primary purpose is to display superior off-road and towing capabilities, teamed with higher seating capacity.

Multi Utility Vehicle

These are larger vehicles which can tackle a wide range of applications. They typically allow easy conversion between multiple combinations of passenger and luggage capacity.

Vehicle

A vehicle (from Latin: vehiculum) is a mobile machine that transports people or cargo. Most often, vehicles are manufactured, such as wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses), railed vehicles (trains, trams), watercraft (ships, boats), aircraft and spacecraft.

Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground: wheeled, tracked, railed or skied. ISO 3833-1977 is the standard, also internationally used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms and definitions.

History of vehicles

Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word usually refers to visible light, which is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), or 4.00 × 10⁻⁷ to 7.00 × 10⁻⁷ m, between the infrared (with longer wavelengths) and the ultraviolet (with shorter wavelengths). This wavelength means a frequency range of roughly 430–750 terahertz (THz).

The main source of light on Earth is the Sun. Sunlight provides the energy that green plants use to create sugars mostly in the form of starches, which release energy into the living things that digest them. This process of photosynthesis provides virtually all the energy used by living things. Historically, another important source of light for humans has been fire, from ancient campfires to modern kerosene lamps. With the development of electric lights and power systems, electric lighting has effectively replaced firelight. Some species of animals generate their own light, a process called bioluminescence. For example, fireflies use light to locate mates, and vampire squids use it to hide themselves from prey.

Utility

In economics, utility is a measure of preferences over some set of goods and services. The concept is an important underpinning of rational choice theory in economics and game theory, because it represents satisfaction experienced by the consumer of a good. A good is something that satisfies human wants. Since one cannot directly measure benefit, satisfaction or happiness from a good or service, economists instead have devised ways of representing and measuring utility in terms of economic choices that can be measured. Economists have attempted to perfect highly abstract methods of comparing utilities by observing and calculating economic choices. In the simplest sense, economists consider utility to be revealed in people's willingness to pay different amounts for different goods.

Applications

Utility is usually applied by economists in such constructs as the indifference curve, which plot the combination of commodities that an individual or a society would accept to maintain a given level of satisfaction. Utility and indifference curves are used by economists to understand the underpinnings of demand curves, which are half of the supply and demand analysis that is used to analyze the workings of goods markets.