Can a truck equipped with airbags and V-shaped hull prevent Roadside bomb casualties?

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: MARINE CORPS

* BALTIMORE -- Roadside bombs have caused 80 percent of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. During a single week last month, there were 400 attacks on U.S. forces across Afghanistan and of those 250 were improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, said Gen. George W. Casey, chief of staff of the Army.

Newer trucks with V-shaped hulls can deflect the force of those explosions, but they are not completely immune to the effects of a blast.

"Acceleration is the most significant casualty-producing mechanism in our combat vehicles when hitting improvised explosive devices," said Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command.

Vehicles caught in a bomb blast experience two acceleration events: One is in an upward direction after the blast goes off. Its duration is between 40 to 50 milliseconds. The second event, when the vehicle returns to the ground and stops abruptly, is analogous to an automobile accident and lasts roughly 200 milliseconds.

"That first 40-millisecond event is causing the majority of the casualties," said Brogan, who challenged industry attendees at a National Defense Industrial Association conference to design a survivability capsule with a seating and restraining...