If you've got a buddy in the Service or watch CNN, you know roadside bombs, i.e. IEDs, are being used to devastating effect in Iraq.

The Humvee--the U.S. military's most common rapid troop transport--is flat on the bottom, an intentional design feature meant to prevent the vehicle's underside from snagging on any of the rough terrain and urban rubble it was meant to drive over. But the problem with a flat underside is that it provides an awful lot of surface area for an IED to slam into, meaning the vehicles are often penetrated by mines.

The New York Times takes a look at the U.S. military's new designs intended to solve that problem. A V-shaped hull will disperse an explosion outwards and is clearly the better way to go; and while that design feature isn't new--it's an idea from South African vehicles in the 1970s--the new generation of MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) transports implementing it is.

Click the link and read about the MaxxPro, the Cougar and the Buffalo, manufactured with many components from International Harvester (yes, the farm equipment company) and Mack (yes, the big-rig company).