As the holiday season looms large, more and more new products are making the transition from simple line art drawings to actual photographed images. In the case of Panzerkampf, the manufacturer recently posted pictures of their upcoming M1083 medium tactical vehicle, an important workhorse of the US Army over the last few years that is often seen hauling troops and supplies to and from the front lines.
The Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) is based on an Austrian truck, the Steyr 12M18, but considerably re-engineered to be available as the 4×4 2.5-tone Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) and the 6×6 5-tone Medium Tactical Vehicle (MTV). Both models have over 90 percent of components in common such as the cab, engine, drive train, tires, wheels, front suspension, axles, etc, and involve many commercial components. There was also an 8×8 heavy tactical vehicle, however only a couple of its prototypes were built and it never reached mass production. The basic LMTV is the M1078 cargo carrier while the 6×6 baseline model is the M1083.
Thus far two versions have been shown to the public – one in the familiar NATO woodland camouflage and the other in the obligatory desert sand scheme. Two other releases, both sporting machine guns atop the passenger compartment (and one featuring a single rear axle) are likely due out later, perhaps nudged into early 2023 due to supply chain issues. Ironic, yes?