Champions' vehicle roll-over in Lebanon: First image and details

New details about the incident in which two champions' vehicles overturned last week in Lebanon: The driver of the patrol vehicle carrying Northern Command Chief, Major General Ori Gordin, and Central Command Chief, Major General Avi Bluth, lost his way on the dark road, veered into a sloped section, causing the vehicle to flip.

The two were on what was defined as an "operational tour" in Lebanon when the vehicle overturned. General Gordin was lightly injured and completed a series of tests at the hospital. The IDF reported that he has since returned to full operational duties.

This was the first accident involving the "Pra," the IDF nickname for the American JLTV vehicle, which was first purchased and brought to Israel via the U.S. airlift after the war began. According to statements from the manufacturer, the Defense Ministry has ordered over 100 such vehicles from Oshkosh, which have replaced some of the U.S. Army’s Humvees.

In the incident, the driver had difficulty following the vehicle ahead in the convoy, and due to the dust created by the champions' convoy, he lost his way and veered off the road. According to eyewitnesses at the scene, due to the thick dust, the driver struggled to follow the path left by the leading vehicle, which led to him veering off the lane and entering a ditch on the side of the road.

Unlike the Humvee, which is an open vehicle, the JLTV, developed as part of lessons learned from the Iraq War, is a closed and armored vehicle. While it offers better protection for the crew against threats, it is more isolated from the surroundings, with smaller windows, which requires drivers to make a special effort to identify what is happening outside.

The JLTV is equipped with a 6.6-liter turbo diesel engine based on General Motors' Duramax, an automatic transmission with six gears, and can reach a maximum speed of 110 km/h. The vehicle can be armed with a machine gun and anti-tank missiles. The price of the JLTV is approximately $400,000 per unit. The vehicle’s armor kit is supplied by the Israeli company Plasan.

A decision to purchase the JLTV was made in 2016 as part of the lessons from the Second Lebanon War, but the IDF struggled to find the budget to implement it. Only the 2023 Iron Sword War led to the first Israeli orders, with hopes that later on, larger quantities of surplus U.S. vehicles could be purchased at cheaper prices.

Following the war, the Defense Ministry also ordered initial units of the American off-road patrol vehicle, the Flyer, which received the IDF nickname Be'eri after the kibbutz in the Gaza Envelope that was severely affected by the Hamas attack on October 7, in which 101 of its residents were killed and 31 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.