The Oshkosh team

met shortly after the Pentagon issued an emergency call for the vehicles, in an "urgent need" request that falls outside the traditional, sluggish procurement process, to plan a way to adapt an existing vehicle to the new terrain. "It's not as much of a challenge as you might think," says Dan Binder, Oshkosh's technical director for the M-ATV. "Our design is based on a modular concept." The company's plan revolved around removing an axle from the chassis of an MTVR, a six-wheeled, 7-ton truck they sell to Marines. The commonality between other vehicles is appealing to the Pentagon, which is always interested in streamlining logistics and training by using similar equipment. The M-ATV shares several parts with the Marines' 7-ton truck, including the drivetrain, dashboard panels and coil-spring suspension, which can clear 16 inches while carrying a normal load, as can the Marines' 7-ton truck. The specially built (and proprietary) suspension system is also being retrofit to other vehicles in the Army and Marine inventory. There is also a slew of protective features that make the vehicle a vast improvement on Humvees while keeping its weight and profile to a minimum. These include a V-shaped hull that deflects the force of explosions away from the vehicle's occupants; seats that are suspended from the ceiling with straps, instead of being bolted to the floor, so that explosive energy doesn't travel into the cab and cause leg injuries; energy-absorbing floor mats; wheels that are located away from where people sit so that pressure-plate-triggered IEDs do not detonate under the crew capsule; and tire rims can survive if the wheels are blasted away, at least long enough to escape the kill zone of an ambush. Oshkosh's Frankenvehicle strategy puts a premium on paying for research that can be applied to future contracts. And M-ATV is just the tip of the military-vehicle iceberg. The real prize, called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program, is meant to replace the Humvee for good. The future family of vehicles will include five armored versions, including infantry combat, command, reconnaissance and armored utility vehicles. Such a contract would easily total tens of billions of dollars in construction alone, not to mention funds for maintenance and field support services