China Says its new “Dongfeng Mengshi” Tactical Combat Vehicle is Superior to the U.S. Humvee

*A Warrior Maven Top Story of 2021*

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

(Washington, D.C.) The Chinese military is mass-producing an armed, off-road tactical combat vehicle intended to support infantry attacks, transport equipment and personnel and fire machine guns and grenades.

Dongfeng Mengshi

The vehicle, called a third-generation Dongfeng Mengshi, is also configurable as a command and control platform or launch pad for heavier weapons, according to a report in the Chinese-government backed Global Times newspaper.

“It can also remove its transport function and instead be installed with different modules so it can become a command vehicle, a self-propelled howitzer, a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher system and more,” the paper writes, quoting a Chinese military expert.

Interestingly, the Chinese report asserts a claim that their new vehicle is engineered with “bulletproof plates that are superior to the U.S. Humvee,” a statement likely to raise a few questions.

Certainly specifics related to the armor configuration of the vehicle are not likely to be available, yet the new vehicle would need to be substantially fortified with new protections to rival the combat performance of an up-armored Humvees. 

U.S. Army MRAP-All Terrain Vehicles

The U.S. Army spent many years during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to strengthen protections for its Humvee by adding additional armor plating or “up-armoring”, blast-attenuating seats, and protected “capsule” like structures to secure soldiers from IED blasts in the event that wheels and other external structures are exploded.