Rollover Training

The NaviStar MAXXPro is a narrow, tall, large and heavy vehicle. It provides satisfactory protection for the passengers sitting inside, but driving the Humvee needs special awareness. As generally known, the US-designed, blast-resistant vehicles, are more liable to turn over compared to the shorter types of vehicles with similar profile. Having learnt from the lessons, not only the drivers receive the Humvee Egress Assistance Training (HEAT) for the MAXXPro, more widely known by the category name as MRAP (Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected), but also the passengers will learn how to escape in case of rollover.

According to experiences, after the blast, the vehicle would often tilt to the side, or when the turret breaks off the vehicle, it would even turn upside down. The rollover caused by some accidents is not a rare incident either. The rules of survival – besides the use of the safety belt, the helmet and the bullet-proof vest – include the fixing of the equipment and tools stored inside and also that each passenger should know how to abandon the vehicle via the quickest and safest means.

Created for the practice, the special simulator system built on a platform and operated by electric engines, using the armoured body of the MAXXPro, can spin the body round its longitudinal axis a full 360 degrees. During the classroom instruction the driver, the commander of the vehicle, the machine-gunner and the soldiers sitting inside as passengers are provided precise information about the threat of rollover to the vehicle, and the proper conduct and procedures to follow in such a case.

After the classroom instruction comes the practical training: here the evacuation can be practiced in a hangar-tent, under safe circumstances, even in full darkness (simulating rollover at night). The inside of the vehicle is surveyed by cameras and microphones, so the specialists operating the system can continuously watch and listen to what is going on in there, and the soldiers can not only experience, but also practice what is there to be done, when fastened to the ceiling of the vehicle suspended head first. How to unfasten the safety belt so that getting out of the vehicle would cause no injury? Provided that the soldier starting to leave first took a careful look around, and did not notice any mortar shell or explosive device, which the MRAP trainers would – just for “fun" – regularly hide here and there round the “rolled over" cabin. Then the soldiers would stay in the vehicle until the neutralisation, as the armoured body provides a higher level of protection in case of blasting than being in the open field.