The Marine Corps desires a highly mobile amphibious vehicle that operates in harsh conditions on land and in ocean waters. The existing Amphibious Assault Vehicles suspension system limits sea mobility to around 8 knots, three times slower than that desired by the Marine Corps. Loc Performance Products, Inc. (Loc) proposes to develop its Best Value Suspension System (BVSS) with its partner Oneiric Systems, Inc., to provide the Marine Corps with its desired sea and land mobility performance at an affordable price. BVSS provides a minimally complex approach to lift the running gear, improving sea mobility, while simultaneously meeting all requirements. In Phase I, Loc will develop two spring technology solutions and a common hydraulic damping design to offer the Marine Corps a modular architecture with tradeoff options between cost, weight, packaging, and reliability in their future amphibious suspension system. Loc will mature the technology concepts, perform modeling and simulation analyses, and quantify tradeoffs for each spring mechanism option. At the conclusion of Phase I, Loc will recommend a complete system design for a follow-on Phase II system demonstration. At the conclusion of Phase II, BVSS will be ready for technology insertion into the next Marine Corps amphibious vehicle development program.
Benefit: The Marine Corps will be able to afford to launch its amphibious vehicles from far enough offshore where the United States Navy fleet would be less vulnerable to enemy fire. As a result, Locs technology would save soldiers lives, improve combat effectiveness, and provide the taxpayer Best Value. The technology would also improve transportability of other Army and Marine Corps tracked vehicles, and it would provide commercial delivery vehicle companies with options for improving loading and unloading efficiencies with adjustable floor height capability. Both the defense ground combat vehicle market and the commercial delivery vehicle market would realize significant cost savings and performance enhancements from the proposed BVSS technology, and the economy would greatly benefit from the resultant job creation for continued development and product manufacturing.
Keywords: vehicle, vehicle, Mobility, hydraulic, suspension, best value, Track, hydro-pneumatic, amphibious
