Protected Vehicles Community Forum - Recent Posts

Can Global Acceleration be combated?

RichM — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:12:05 +0000

The global acceleration of a vehicle is a crucial cause of death / injury inside an armored vehicle. The rapid acceleration upwards can kill the occupants even if the vehicle is not penetrated.

The rapid acceleration upwards can cause brain, neck and spinal compression injuries, and immediate fatalities by disruption of the internal organs, including potentially rupture of the aorta as the abdomen viscera move downwards. (Apologies for being gruesome, but that’s what can happen.)

There is a system from Advanced Blast & Ballistic Systems in the UK, called VGAM™ which counteracts mine/IED blast lifting forces to keep the vehicle on the ground, eliminating the Global Acceleration threat, so mine blast protection levels could be higher than is currently normal. This uses extremely powerful, fast-acting Linear Rocket Motors (LRM™) push down on the vehicle to counteract the lifting forces - with each LRM capable of generating over 100tons thrust so it could make a vehicle ‘weigh’ over 1,000tons to counteract the vast majority of mine/IED threats.

Full scale tests in the UK in 2017 and in the USA in 2018 at the Aberdeen Proving Ground have demonstrated that the system is completely successful; but as with all great ideas, it needs momentum and funding to take it to the next level and see it implemented on the next generation of vehicles.

ABBS are currently fundraising on WeFunder for their US based subsidiary, Active Safety System Technologies Inc; so although this is a bit of a plug, hopefully you will feel able to support our objectives and make your own contribution to this unique and important technical development which can provide a step-change in the mine blast protection levels for US military vehicles and the personnel inside them.

Are Active Protection Systems game changers?

RichM — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:40:51 +0000

There are several different active protection systems exist for armored vehicles.

In the West, probably the most well-known systems are the Israeli based Trophy system and Iron First system plus the US based Iron Curtain system.

All of these work by intercepting incoming RPGs and rockets before they hit their target; and promise a high level of protection.

Does anyone have experience of the relative merits of these systems?

Effects of TBI on occupants of armored vehicles

RichM — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:30:12 +0000

Following recent discussion with the GVSC and DOD, it became apparent that little is known around what causes TBIs in occupants of armored vehicles, particularly where the vehicle has been subject to some form of blast, but the vehicle itself has not been penetrated.

We were wondering what experiences veterans had come across in such circumstances.