humvee

Despite the vehicles' armor, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) can still take out Humvees and MRAP vehicles with ease. But a company wants to change that equation with airbags that neutralize incoming RPGs and prevent them from exploding.

An electric Humvee may still sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to environmentalists, but the company developing a plug-in Hummer H3e claims its green version can get 100 mpg on average. And what's a little boasting without taking a shot at the competition?

As a street-legal SUV, the Hummer H1—the consumer version of the military’s famous Humvee—is overbuilt in the extreme, like Fort Knox or the Giza pyramids or the Broadway production of The Lion King. You probably won’t need to paradrop from a helicopter or drive through a waist-deep stream on the way to dinner at Le Grand Fromage, but it sure is nice to know that you could. AM General, which builds both the military and civilian versions, recently realized, however, that the H1 is too much truck for many buyers.

Radar. The Internet. The Jeep. The Global Positioning System. Technologies developed for the military often cross over to the civilian world-subtly or still in character. A Hummer, even painted lemon yellow and parked downtown, still looks battle-ready. And technology crosses back too. The Marines´ Dragon Runner surveillance vehicle was inspired by the radio-controlled car industry; the controller was copped from a PlayStation 2.