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There’s smoke and dust everywhere. Blood is rushing to your head, and you can feel the pressure building in your eyes. You know you need to get out, and if you’ve never had the experience before, you just might be freaking out. Luckily for you, there’s now a way to experience a vehicle rollover without actually being in one.
***image2***21st Theater Support Command employees have developed a revolutionary new training tool to prepare Soldiers for vehicle rollovers at Maintenance Activity Kaiserslautern, part of the Theater Logistics Support Center-Europe. The HEAT A1, HMMWV Egress Assistance Trainer, is a humvee rollover simulator that builds on the design of the prototype version built in April 2005 for a safer, more effective training experience.
The design concept of the HEAT A1 is simple. It’s a modified humvee cabin suspended several feet in the air so that it has room to turn upside-down, with a hydraulic drive attached to turn it.
From the time U.S. Army, Europe tasked the 21st TSC to develop the new model in September 2006 to the time it was completed at the beginning of February, MAK worked in many improvements. An upgraded hydraulic drive to turn the humvee has been added, for instance.
The power unit for the new drive is 30 percent more powerful than the old one. Additionally, it can turn 358 degrees, as opposed to the original model’s 180 degree turning radius. This allows training Soldiers to turn either left or right for more variation, and it also lets the trainer rapidly turn the humvee cabin right-side up in case of an emergency.
The original HEAT turned 180 degrees in 13.5 seconds, while the new drive allows the cabin to turn its full 358 degrees rotation in 14 seconds, making the training more intense. For training purposes, cameras and an intercom system have been installed to help the trainer observe and direct the Soldiers in the vehicle.
The HEAT A1 also has new safety features. A hydraulic brake has been added so the system can stop turning in an emergency. The combat locks in the doors now have sensors indicating when they are open so that Soldiers don’t accidentally fall out while the vehicle is turning.
The new model uses a two-belt seatbelt system, which is being installed in new humvees. Safety pads are now part of the HEAT system. Previously, Soldiers exiting the vehicle would land on whatever surface the device happened to be resting on.
Perhaps the most visible difference is that the humvee cabin in the HEAT A1 looks like a 114 up-armored model humvee commonly used in Iraq.
The original plan for the design was to use an actual 114 model, but the development team found that they were too valuable to be spared for a training system, so a 1025 model was salvaged for modification and plates were cannibalized from irreparable humvees.
The project, which cost about $75,000, was conducted in a cost-saving manner with only 10 people required to design and build the device. About 80 percent of the parts were built at or taken from available resources at MAK, said Eric Wilking, the production manager at MAK and the project manager for the HEAT A1.
“This is a real team spirit,” he said, “It took 10 brains and 20 hands to put this together.”
Had the HEAT A1 been built elsewhere, it could have cost $200,000, said Wilking. More than 50 devices could be produced in the future, he said.
The HEAT A1 trains Soldiers to react when turned upside-down in a humvee. It’s not a perfect simulation, but it promises to be the first simulator widely available to train for such a situation.
“The main thing is not to simulate a rollover. The main thing is to move out in a safe way. You cannot simulate a rollover,” Mr. Wilking said.
There are currently three prototypes being used for training. The original HEAT is slated to be returned to TLSC-E to be upgraded to the HEAT A1. One is being used in Afghanistan and another was built by Army Materiel Management Command, said Mr. Wilking.
The first HEAT A1 was shipped to Vicenza Feb. 15 to be used by Southern European Task Force. Another HEAT A1 is in production for use in Grafenwoehr.
