The military rigs aren't commonly available and are expensive for the "average ham."
We have tried to encourage quasi-standardization among our Virginia RACES operators who routinely do mobile and portable HF. Of the common rigs out there which seem to have a proven track record, the most popular seem to be the various iterations of the IC706, the Yaesu FT900CAT (my personal favorite) and the older Kenwood TS430, 440, 450 series, all using auto tuners.
Some comments from Steve Cuccio, NB30, our Old Dominion Emergency Net Manager:
"These guys who think they can operate SSB with 5 watts AND a mobile antenna simply haven't been on 75 enough. Generally EmCom and NTS operation requires a better signal for reliability than the normal CQDX UR 599 style QSOs. If a person is one S-unit below 100 watts and a dipole because he is running 25 watts to save his battery, that's livable. If he's two S-units down by running 25 watts and a portable hamstick dipole, copy becomes marginal. If he's four S-units down by running 25 watts on a single vertical hamstick on a vehicle, you may not copy him at all unless he changes to CW and hope the station at the other end has a really narrow filter, especially with the splatter we have to live with on a crowded band."
Your mileage may vary, but I value Steve's observations, as they agree with my own experience.
I agree that QRP on 14 through 28 MHz works really well, but on frequencies needed for reliable "short path" on 40 to 75/80 meters, the noise level increases the lower in frequency you go. On 160 meters, which we occasionally need to get a reliable late night winter path, less than 100w on a full-sized dipole is extremely marginal during periods of high SFI.
73 de KE4SKY
Virginia State RACES Training Officer