The war in Iraq demonstrated the need for dramatic change in the policy for designing armoured vehicles, mainly because todays military conflicts are decided with precise weapons and the main task of the new armoured vehicles is to contain and stabilize areas in which there are still terror activists. In this new battlefield, no differentiation can be made between armoured and logistic vehicles. Moreover, logistic vehicles should survive terror threats and protect the crew; unquestionably, crew survivability is the main aim. The development of solution with optimum trade-off between mobility and survivability cannot be done just by trial and error. Development of reliable CAE model of the vehicle and the threat, using a simulative tool is essential. Plasan Ltd. has invested vast efforts to produce an effective methodology for the development of armoured vehicle, using a virtual design that can speed up the design and update the means of protection. The foundation of the developed methodology is an adequate synergy between the design, reliable calibrated simulation and the field tests In the paper we will demonstrate how we use the methodology for developing an armoured vehicle according to specific requirements. We will show a comparison between the simulation prediction and physical field test results. We will also show that once the model is verified and calibrated quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact of the modifications can be effectively examined by the simulation model, while saving expensive field tests.
