VEE Window Benefits

The VEE Window offers a number of unique benefits to U.S. troops.

Increased safety and survivability

The VEE Window is a practical combat vehicle enhancement that can increase safety and survivability for passengers in up-armored combat vehicles. The VEE Window can be easily removed to provide passengers another way to rapidly (less than one minute) exit the vehicle in the event of an emergency or entrapment situation.

Readily available

The VEE Window is adaptable to virtually any tactical up-armored combat vehicle, such as HMMWVs, Army FMTVs or Marine MTVRs. Under the current contract, BAE Systems will deliver the VEE Window kits to Army personnel by November 2007.

Cost-effectiveness

The VEE Window kit uses a vehicle’s existing transparent armor assemblies (ballistic windshields) making it a cost-effective safety enhancement for the M1114 HMMWV. With only two moving parts, the VEE Window requires minimum maintenance and a very low life-cycle cost.

Easy to use and install

The simplicity of the VEE Window design enables one passenger to remove the window in less than five seconds. The VEE Window has a minimal impact to existing window designs. It uses the vehicle’s existing ballistic glass, coupled with an armor modification kit and window fastener hardware that can be installed in the field in approximately one hour by trained Army and Marine maintenance crews.

The kit for the M1114 HMMWV consists of modified transparent armor assemblies, or bullet-proof windshields, with integral, fail-safe latch mechanisms. The kit provides the same level of ballistic protection as the current vehicle configuration but with the added latch feature allowing passengers to rapidly escape during an emergency. The rotary latch mechanism has integral safety interlocks, is easy to operate and the process for releasing the window takes less than five seconds. In the event of a vehicle emergency, a crew member simply pulls out the locking pins, turns the two latches and pushes the window out allowing the crew to quickly climb out of the vehicle.