Concept design of a new generation military vehicle

This paper presents the development of an advanced concept for a next generation military vehicle based on state of the art technologies. The vehicle's platform will be directly suitable for high mobility applications for instance: Special Forces missions, Marine reconnaissance missions, and commercial racing in events such as Bajas and the Paris - Dakar. The platform will be a 10000 -14000 lbs high-speed multi-purpose vehicle, designed for extreme off-road operation. A completely new suspension concept is expected to be developed and the new vehicle topology will accommodate a new generation hybrid-electric power train. The dynamic performance targets are 125 mph off-road and 0-60 in 7 seconds. The concept design will focus also on survivability mainly through the use of a new vehicle topology (herein referred to as "island") specifically designed to enhance crew protection. The "island" topology consists in locating the powertrain and other vehicle equipment and subsystems around the crew compartment. Thus, even in the event of an external shield penetration the crew compartment remains protected by the surrounding equipment which serves in an additional role as a secondary shield. The paper presents vehicle specifications, performance capabilities, simulation models and virtual models of the vehicle.