From left to right, James Clerkin, ATC Senior Test Engineer, Col. Natasha Coleman, Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), Mr. Chris Paust, Deputy Program Manager from the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP), Col. James Polak, Commander of U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, and Dr. Melissa Steffen, ATC Technical Director, cut the ribbon to signify the Accelerated Vehicle Durability Testing simulators are open and ready for testing. Simulators will accelerate acquisition and delivery of systems to our warfighters.

The Heavy Vehicle Durability Simulator (HVDS) is a one-of-a-kind simulator and part of Accelerated Vehicle Durability Testing at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center. The HVDS simulates on and off-road shock and vibration for full systems and vehicle components, chassis and suspensions. The simulator can support five axle trucks and multi axle trailers up to 24,000 pounds at each axle.

During a demonstration of the Heavy Vehicle Durability Simulator (HVDS) Dr. Melissa Steffen, Technical Director at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, explains to Col. Natasha Coleman, PEO STRI, how the simulator replicates test courses at ATC.

The Drivetrain Durability Simulator (DDS) is one of two simulators that are now part of ATC’s Accelerated Vehicle Durability Testing capability at ATC. The DDS stresses the parts of a vehicle that transmits power from the vehicle’s engine to its wheels and is primarily used for drivetrain performance and fuel economy testing. The simulator can support vehicles ranging from two to four axles and up to 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.

ABERDEEN, Md. – At the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, Accelerated Vehicle Durability Testing (AVDT) is now part of the road ahead for the Department of Defense. This set of hardware-in-the-loop simulators will accelerate the acquisition process for military vehicles – reducing testing time, costs and risks – to deliver data that informs decisions for the next generation of effective and lethal systems to our warfighters.

The completion of the new capability was celebrated on Wednesday with a ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. After the opening remarks, key representatives from ATC and PEO STRI cut the ribbon to signify ATC’s AVDT capability is online, operational and ready for testing.

The $55 million dollar investment is a one-of-a-kind facility for the Department of Defense and was funded by the Test Resource Management Center Centralized Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP). The project was also supported by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command and was managed by Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

“Kudos to the team for getting this tremendous capability for the Department [of Defense],” said Chris Paust, deputy program manager CTEIP. “We can simulate thousands of hours of testing and test every vehicle in our fleet, as well as bring down risk and costs.”

Dr. Melissa Steffen, ATC’s Technical Director, mentored the project from requirements development to product delivery. “In 2015, ATC engineers were using a smaller hardware-in-the-loop simulator, similar to those being used by private industry automakers, to test medium sized tactical vehicles. The simulators provided significant gains to vehicle development – enabling vehicle design engineers to fail faster and identify defects sooner – but ultimately the simulators were unable to keep up with the growing size of military vehicles.” she said.

“Our engineers realized that scaling up the capability to support larger, heavier military trucks, would help the Department of Defense accelerate the modernization of its entire tactical vehicle fleet,” said Col. James Polak, ATC’s Commander.

After nearly 10 years of requirement development, construction, installation, and testing, ATC accepted the AVDT in December 2024.

The AVDT capability is one of a kind in the Department of Defense and is comprised of two separate hardware-in-the-loop simulation capabilities, the Heavy Vehicle Durability Simulator (HVDS) and the Drivetrain Durability Simulator (DDS).

The HVDS simulates on and off-road shock and vibration for full systems and vehicle components, chassis and suspensions. The simulator can support five axle trucks and multi axle trailers up to 24,000 pounds at each axle.

The DDS stresses the parts of a vehicle that transmits power from the vehicle’s engine to its wheels and is primarily used for drivetrain performance and fuel economy testing. The simulator can support vehicles ranging from two to four axles and up to 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.

“AVDT reduces test time and improves confidence in results by using real world data to focus on the significant durability loads by eliminating the benign content”, said Brian Liswell, ATC Senior engineer.

The AVDT accelerates the timeline of Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability testing. In traditional testing, driving a vehicle in the dirt around the test track, completing 20,000 miles takes about 1 year. The AVDT will complete the same amount of milage in three months, improving the test schedule by a factor of about four times. Similarly, subassembly tests that take 12-20 months can be completed in approximately 3 weeks, and component testing can be completed 100 times faster.

Today’s ribbon cutting marks an important milestone in ATC’s capabilities that are crucial to developing and supporting the Army of 2040 and beyond.

"AVDT is a game-changer for rapidly delivering cutting-edge systems to our warfighters. By leveraging simulation and advanced testing, we're reducing time and cost while increasing confidence in our military vehicles' reliability and performance,” said Camille Houston, Director of ATC’s Virtual Test & Electronics Directorate.