In the late 1970s the U.S. Army felt its fleet of jeeps and light trucks no longer cut it for modern battlefields, so it asked AM General to design a new all-terrain utility vehicle. By 1985 the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle—quickly nicknamed the ‘Humvee’—rolled into service with a wide stance, portal axles and a powerful diesel engine that let it haul troops, tow weapons and ford streams where older trucks bogged down. When Desert Storm roared across Kuwait in 1991, the Humvee proved its worth in deep desert runs, leading convoys and delivering supplies across dunes and salt flats. Its success inspired GM’s civilian Hummer, yet the Humvee remained unarmoured—fine in the Gulf’s open sands but tragically vulnerable to roadside bombs and IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2003. In a hurry, the Army slapped on steel and ceramic plating to field up-armoured ‘up-gunned’ variants and leaned on MRAPs for the worst routes. By 2015 it was clear the Humvee’s basic chassis had reached its limit. Under the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle programme the Army chose Oshkosh’s L-ATV to take over frontline roles, offering better blast protection and a modern suspension. Though thousands of Humvees still serve in support, training and allied stocks, the JLTV marks the end of the Humvee’s era as America’s go-anywhere utility workhorse—its legacy etched in convoy tracks from the cold forests of Europe to the sands of the Middle East.