A TEAM EFFORT


Award-winning ManTech program to create a new kind of blast -resistant aluminum vehicle hull resulted from a variety of new and existing R&D.


by Dr. Bryan Cheeseman D 208 Army AL&T Magazine January-March 2018


uring the autumns of 2014 and 2015, the Army demonstrated a force protection capability using a newly designed aluminum hull for combat vehicles. Tese tests involved a large underbody blast gauged on enemy threats as part of the U.S. Army Manufacturing Technology (ManTech)


project called Affordable Protection from Objective Treats (APOT).


Te research and development (R&D) on the APOT program offers tremendous improvements and great promise in force protection for the future. APOT focused on the maturation of lower hull manufacturing techniques, pulling together a number of applied research, advanced technology development, operational systems development and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, along with efforts being conducted as part of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) and a U.S.-Israel project agreement. Te result was the fabrication of multiple lower hulls into notional ballistic hull and turrets (BH&Ts). (A BH&T is a bare vehicle structure used for ballistic testing. It does not typically contain a functional powertrain, suspen- sion, communication equipment, etc.)


After the APOT team outfitted the BH&Ts with energy-absorbing and impulse- mitigating technologies and anthropomorphic test devices (crash dummies), the BH&Ts were tested with an explosive charge significantly larger than a previous test or a typical improvised explosive device (IED) used by adversaries in Iraq and Afghani- stan. Assessments of the dummies indicated limited or no injuries. Results from this


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