QinetiQ North America recently unveiled its new BlastRide seat for military vehicles, the only seat on the market to successfully combine an active damping system with the latest shock absorption technology, according to a company executive.
“Right now, we’re targeting literally every kind of vehicle…operating in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan,” Bob Barrett, director strategy and business development, QinetiQ North America Technology Solutions Group, told sister publication Defense Daily recently. Soldiers are looking for solutions to both the explosive and shock impacts that have been causing injuries while they traveled in military vehicles, he added.
The BlastRide seat was developed by the company to provide protection from both primary (blast) and secondary (slam down) impacts, while reducing soldier fatigue during long convoys over rough terrain.
QinetiQ’s seat has an “up and down” capability, Barrett said. “If you have crushable material in the seat that can only take the blast upwards, the challenge is coming back down, so you’ve got to have both,” he added.
The new BlastRide seat protects soldiers from both events, reducing the 350 G-force from the blast to less than 20 G in the soldier’s spine and pelvis.
QinetiQ partnered with ActiveShock, developer of an active vehicle suspension technology that provides the rideability piece, Barrett said. “Current vehicle seats in theater have no give–think about if you’re in Afghanistan driving for eight hours a day over a year-long period, you’re going to develop neck problems, back problems, and knee problems.”
QinetiQ demonstrated the new seats recently at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
On the exhibition floor, the company let visitors ride in a seat dropped from a tower simulating a 4-G shock. “That’s like a HMMWV coming down off a pretty serious bump…but there is virtually no feeling of impact,” Barrett said.
Another key feature is the optional open back patented design, developed with the help of Army and National Guard infantrymen. Soldiers laden with gear and packs have been unable to sit back properly and buckle into other protective seats, Barrett said. “As you can imagine in that position, blast mitigation from the system is not going to work.”
“We’ve designed a seat where the pack will go back into it…the soldier can use the seat belt and sit comfortably in the position where [the seat] can do what it needs to do,” Barrett said.
The system adjusts to the weight of the rider automatically and assesses impacts once per millisecond to isolate vibration and improve ride comfort. It also features a quick release, four-point harness.
“Once there’s contact, one of the first things you may want to do is get out in a very quick fashion, and if you can do that with all of your equipment on, it’s that much better,” Barrett said.
QinetiQ identified the need and quickly brought new technology to market within six months, Barrett said. Some of it came from fast boat developments in the marine world. AUSA was the coming out party and the company received a very significant amount of interest during the expo, he added.
“We will look to adapt this to any vehicle, HMMWVs, Strykers, Bradleys, and more,” he said. “We have devised a system that can mediate those bumps along the way and take the shock from a blast at the same time–so it’s got both rideability and the ability to dissipate the shock from the blast of an IED.”