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MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- Two partnering companies, one of them from the Triad, are hoping to land a contract with the U.S. Defense Department for a major re-fit of the Humvee. The partnership is competing against at least four other companies to make the military vehicle better able to withstand weapons fire and explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan and increase their survivability.

Granite Tactical Vehicles of Mount Airy and Lousiana-based Textron Marine & Land Systems are just weeks away from submitting a bid for a contract to re-fit some 60,000 Humvees used by soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The existing Humvee does not have any blast survivability and as you see over the last handful of years, the majority of our war fighters have been lost as a result of blasts," said Chris Berman, president of Granite Tactical.

Berman's design was aimed at better protecting the vehicle from blasts.

"We pull its aluminum lightweight body off [and] we put on an all-armor solution,” Berman said. “It's got a hull structure designed to withstand a very large blast."

The re-fitted Humvee includes new suspension to carry the added weight of the modifications and it's undergone extensive testing for survivability.

"We've analyzed this with tools and modeling and simulation but we've also run these through a couple of range tests and exploded IEDs under them and tested them with small arms fire," said Textron's Paul Mueller..

The companies are putting a test Humvee through its paces on an off-road course several hours a day.

"To basically torture, simulate the harsh conditions of a combat environment," said Berman.

Former National Guard soldier James Tye called the re-fitted vehicle the Rolls Royce of Humvees.

"With what we're building here I think we're going to more than meet that standard of survivability," Tye said.

While the companies believed they had made the Humvee more impervious to blasts, ultimately their efforts were about protecting the soldiers and Marines inside.

"Everything to try and help give them a little better chance of survival,” said Berman. “Blast-wise we're going as high as you can with such a small vehicle in the hopes of preserving life."