The aim of this paper is to try to classify and assess the risk of injuries of the cervical spine during an attack on a military vehicle. In that case, the focus has been placed only on the side explosion variant, which reflects new threats observed on the basis of events from Afghanistan and not only. The risk of a threat to the life and health of the vehicle’s crew increases as result of an explosion under a military vehicle. Considering that event in terms of the safety of soldiers comes down to a complex analysis of interactions between the soldier’s body, seat and vehicle’s structural elements. The effects of the shock wave result in interactions which cause vibrations resulting from the vibrations of the construction and the acceleration of the occupant’s body.

The currently applied test conditions and criteria of the injuries of LV and LAV crew members exposed to the shock wave resulting from the explosion of the AT mine are specified in Appendix E to the NATO standard [1]. However nowadays, those requirements have been extended and included in classified documents which cannot be presented to the general public. Therefore, the assumptions resulting from the analyses of the existing cases in Afghanistan have been adopted.

This paper includes an attempt to analyse the impact of the explosion of IED on the side of a military vehicle on the risk of injuries of the cervical spine of soldiers. The analysis has been made using numerical methods in the LS-DYNA software and has been conducted considering the variable values of displacement and accelerations registered during an explosion.