A tongue-in-cheek A.C.E post yesterday linked to a redneck rig with the passengers of a small car riding on a sofa suspended well in front and above the vehicle.
While it was in jest, it actually contains a valid concept in improving the survivability of the occupants of lightweight, 4-wheeled vehicles subject to IED devices on roadways or beside roadways. That concept is to get the occupants as far away from the blast as possible.
Another concept is to use a V-shaped bottom, which helps deflect the blast.
It's not practical to load four-wheeled vehicles down with lots of heavy armor plates, as we are now doing in Iraq. It makes them slow. It overloads engines and transmissions not designed to motivate so much weight.
A design Ah-ha! is to recognize that we don't need to protect the vehicle (we can always buy more of them). We only need to protect the occupants, whom we can rescue. (In situations where the damaged vehicle is more likely to be stormed before help can arrive, send Bradleys or Strykers.) That can greatly reduce the amount and weight of armor required.
This Rhodesian Cougar, while butt-ugly, is actually a step in the right direction:
I'd make it EVEN HIGHER, as high as it could be while maintaining stability in turns and to avoid running into all the wires strung across many Iraqi streets. The armored, armed passenger compartment could possibly be cantilevered to the rear some, to further remove the troops from mine explosions the front wheels set off. The top should also be sloped, to deflect small arms and RPG fire. An egg-crate like the Strykers would also help.
I've been working on some sketches of what I have in mind, and will probably post them later.
If styling is important to you, don't worry. Designers could design a vehicle with a distended passenger compartment which is both functional and attractive.
As Rummy noted (during the controversial Q&A session), even an Abrams tank can be destroyed with enough explosives, but not all the IEDs are massive blasts. Some or just large artillery shells. The occupants of a vehicle designed (from the ground up) to protect them from IEDs, small arms fire, and RPGs at least have a better chance of surviving.
And, Sheepdog notes that many IEDs are set off by garage door openers. He suggests DARPA get busy on developing RF flooding technology. Good idea.
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