Military Vehicle Mobility and Terramechanics examines the engineering principles governing military vehicle cross-country performance. This self-paced online course introduces the relationships between soil strength, vehicle characteristics, and terrain interaction and how these are represented through engineering calculations and mobility assessment methods. It provides essential knowledge for engineers, requirements staff, and technical professionals who need to understand, assess, or compare the cross-country mobility of wheeled and tracked military vehicles.

Learners develop essential knowledge progressing from soil behavior and vehicle-terrain interaction through traction mechanics to mobility prediction. Soil strength and remolding establish the terrain conditions a vehicle must overcome, while slip, drawbar pull, and resistance introduce the mechanics governing vehicle movement. Ground-pressure measures and cone-index relationships then connect vehicle characteristics with terrain trafficability, including Nominal Ground Pressure, Mean Maximum Pressure (MMP), Rated Cone Index (RCI), and Vehicle Cone Index (VCI). Introductory terramechanics calculations, Micklethwaite’s equation, parametric resistance methods, and the NATO Reference Mobility Model demonstrate different approaches to predicting and comparing cross-country mobility.

Calculations and quizzes develop learners’ understanding of the relationships between vehicle characteristics, terrain conditions, and cross-country mobility. Learners will be better equipped to interpret fundamental mobility parameters and calculations, compare alternative mobility assessment methods, and recognize their underlying assumptions and limitations. This technical foundation supports more informed assessment of wheeled and tracked vehicle mobility and demonstrates why no single measure can adequately characterize performance across all terrain conditions. As part of the course, participants receive a PDF copy of the course presentation slides, ensuring continued learning and practical application of course concepts.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• •Identify the soil properties and mobility categories relevant to wheeled and tracked military vehicles.
• •Explain the relationships between soil strength, slip, traction, drawbar pull and resistance.
• •Interpret VCI, VLCI and related cone-index measures in the course examples.
• •Calculate selected ground-pressure and terramechanics parameters using the methods and data provided in the course.
• •Compare selected vehicle configurations using the mobility measures and limitations presented in the course.