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Army looks to develop safer Humvee seats

The Army is testing new Humvee seats designed to absorb the blast energy soldiers endure in enemy bomb attacks.

Until recently, the service’s efforts to protect soldiers from homemade bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan have focused on improving the exterior armor on its fleet of more than 120,000 Humvees.

But after six years in Iraq, Army vehicle experts have realized that the no-frills seating in Humvees offers soldiers little protection from explosions powerful enough to hurl a vehicle into the air, said Kari Drotleff, team leader for ground systems survivability and blast mitigation at the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Mich.

“We have identified a need for different seats,” Drotleff told Army Times, adding that “the seats in current vehicles were not designed for the environments they are being put into.”

Drotleff could not estimate how big an impact these new safety seats would have on reducing soldier injuries, but emphasized that the current Humvee seat “doesn’t help protect the soldier. The seats we are looking at and trying to field now are intended for that purpose.”

One of the seat designs being tested is the result of a small business innovation research program that Drotleff’s office began in 2006 to look for ways to protect soldiers in Humvees besides armor.

“There is only so much armor you can hang on it,” Drotleff said.

The TARDEC effort selected a company called Safe Inc. from a pool of several similar-sized companies to develop a seat that could accomplish three goals: Withstand up to 350 G forces, meet current Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for crash worthiness and offer improved comfort, Drotleff said.

After more than two years of testing, TARDEC’s $900,000 investment has met the program’s three goals and is ready to compete with much larger companies, Drotleff said.

“I think it has done everything that we wanted it to,” she said.

Now Safe Inc. and its partner firm, Phantom Industries, are participating, alongside BAE Systems, ArmorWorks, Global Seating Systems LLC and Jankel Armouring Limited from the United Kingdom, in a series of tests that TACOM Life Cycle Management Command is overseeing. TACOM was formerly known as Tank-automotive and Armaments Command.

TACOM officials did not provide any details about the tests by press time.

The testing began March 23 and includes drop tests designed to simulate the force of the initial blast and the secondary “slam down” force that occurs when the Humvee hits the ground after an explosion, said Brian Goedken, vice president of Safe Inc.

These types of blast impact can damage the spine and internal organs.

The new styles of seats use technology similar to commercial car bumpers that depend on materials designed to crush or bend to absorb impact energy before it reaches the seat’s occupant.

Crash dummies outfitted in combat gear were placed in each seat prototype and dropped from heights designed to simulate blasts of up to 400 G forces, Goedken said.

Each seat was dropped twice — once for the initial blast and a second time for the “slam down” force. The dummies record how much energy would be transferred into the seat’s occupant. Testers can use the data to gauge the severity of injuries that might occur.

The TACOM tests will also evaluate each prototype’s comfort performance and for the first time test to see if each meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which govern the commercial car industry and are designed to gauge how well a vehicle can stand up to crashes.

It’s unclear what TACOM intends to do after the tests are completed later this month, Goedken said.

The Army has made “no commitment” to purchase any new seats in the future, Goedken said. The Army hasn’t said what it might do after test results are available.

The cost of each upgraded seat is about $6,000, Goedken said. If the Army were to replace every Humvee seat at that cost, the project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Currently, Humvee seats cost about $800 each.

What is clear to Drotleff is that there are seats available that provide more protection than the current Humvee seats.

“There are a lot of seats out there that may be better than the current seats,” she said.