HMMWV SAM

"Sergeant, are you sure this is safe??!"

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (or more commonly, the "Humvee") is an all-terrain American light truck used by both militaries and civilians for all variety of off-roading needs. Much like the venerable Jeep that it replaced, the Humvee is famed for being able to traverse any environment with relative ease. While an excellent vehicle for scouting and rear line transportation, it is ill-suited for direct combat, possessing little in the way of armor.

Basically this is a Humvee that traded the pintle-mounted .50 cal, for a guy with a FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missile launcher to bring down some low-flying aircraft like helicopters. Overall, this is a poor man's Avenger ADS, where the back compartment of the Humvee is taken up by a dedicated turret housing 4-8 Stinger missiles, which can be launched in quick succession if needed.

In Team Yankee

The Stats

While most would look at this unit and scoff, the Humvee SAM platoon has a somewhat niche role: budget anti-air. For a measly 2-4 points, you get 4-8 shots with 4+ firepower. This would be avoided in most games, but at 25 points and below, these are actually really good units! For a handful of points, you get an affordable unit that can actually kill air units when needed, | rather than making loud explody boom-boom noises for no real reason.

IRL

A Marine Firing a Stinger on Exercise

Air Defense Artillery (ADA) in the 1980s was broken down into two parts, Anti-Air Artillery (AAA) made up of conventional Anti-Air guns (like the the M163 VADS) and Surface to Air missiles (SAMs). Intially the SAM component was provide by the M48 Chaparral, but as Man Portable Air Defense missile (MANPAD) technology became more advanced, they began to take over. In the early days, Stinger platoons zipped around the battle zone in the iconic JEEP, but once the HMMWV was introduced they quickly replaced the older vehicles. ADA Battalions were often assigned to armored divisions with the various Batteries (the ADA's special name for a company) being dolled out to the Armored and Mechanized Battalions to provide local Air Defense.

In reality soldiers would dismount their vehicle before using their missile, but you could fire it out the top if needed, trading accuracy and comfort for speed in manuever warfare. That or use the Avenger Air Defense System! I mean its 1985 and the Avenger as a private venture was finishing its prototype testing in May of 1984 after 10 months of testing. Seriously that went better than the M247 Sergeant York debacle.