King appointed co-chair of NATO technical team
A senior Mississippi State researcher is the new co-chair of a group overseeing development of next generation technology to protect ground vehicles for the world's leading military alliance.
Roger King, director of the university's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, recently was appointed to lead an exploratory team developing new armored vehicles for North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces.
Formally titled "Design and Protection Technologies for Land and Amphibious NATO Vehicles," the project is focused on protection against landmine explosions and improvised explosive device attacks while maintaining a high level of maneuverability.
King said there is "a growing demand for vehicles capable not only of land operations, but also of moving through a larger theater, including river crossings and tactical swimming in the sea and near-shore areas. However, vehicle weight has increased to such an extent that modern amphibious vehicles have lost their capability to maneuver in the water."
A member of the MSU engineering faculty since 1988, King said he and fellow NATO team members will tackle the problem by using advanced technologies and materials, as well as advanced design and optimization tools.
The group also will create computationally efficient simulation models capable of analyzing end-to-end performance of military ground vehicles subjected to blast loading and the effect on soldier injuries to maximize new designs, he explained.
According to King, NATO will benefit in the future from advanced vehicle designs to meet requirements for tactical and operational mobility with a sufficient level of warfighter protection and increased payload.
In addition to MSU's highest academic rank as a Giles Distinguished Professor, King holds the CAVS Endowed Chair in the Bagley College of Engineering.
As CAVS director, the University of Wales doctoral graduate is responsible for an interdisciplinary research center comprised of engineering, research, development, and technology transfer teams focused on enhancing human and payload mobility.
CAVS' activities are clustered around material science, manufacturing process modeling, computational mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, multi-scale modeling, vehicular systems engineering, design optimization, human factors and ergonomics, alternative powered systems, and intelligent electronic systems.
Research activities include efforts on vehicle weight reduction, improved crashworthiness, crash avoidance, new power generation, autonomous vehicle control (robotics), as well as advances in improved diagnostics, manufacturing, human interface, and computational design technologies.
Jim Laird | University Relations
