Sun sets on era of the Humvee as US military announces successor

Symbol of decades of US interventions to be replaced with vehicle more suited to urban warfare environment the US has faced in Iraq and Afghanistan

It became the symbol of half a dozen US military interventions - a vehicle instantly recognisable across the globe, and as popular with the US military (if not with the actual soldiers) as with Islamic State, who stole 2,300 of them in Iraq during the fall of Mosul in 2014.

Now the US Department of Defense has announced the beginning of the end for the ubiquitous Humvee, awarding a $6.7bn contract to replace it to the Wisconsin firm Oshkosh.