Photos: Look out, Humvee

The Humvee isn't the last word in military roadsters. The next generation of fighting four-wheelers could sport features taken from the Ultra Armored Patrol Vehicle, a design project being driven by the Georgia Technology Research Institute and sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

With the Ultra, which uses a commercial truck chassis and runs on diesel fuel, researchers looked to boost mobility and survivability.

The crew capsule--also known as a "blast bucket"--employs a faceted geometry that's meant to deflect pressure waves from explosions better than do current designs.