Press Room

When it comes to protecting their men and women in uniform, The Royal Navy don't take chances. That’s why new Royal Navy Pacific 24 MkIV RHIBS will be fitted with SHOXS seats.

The decision to outfit the new BAE Systems RHIBS with SHOXS followed one of the world’s most exhaustive and scientifically valid evaluations of shock mitigating seats in history. Undertaken by the UK Ministry of Defense, this first-of-its-kind evaluation of more than 15 different seat manufacturers encompassed every area of performance, with shock mitigation tests taking over 2 years to complete.

So far this year forces have seized more than 30 tons of cocaine in the Colombian Pacific, aided in great part by the tactical and safety advantage provided by the 380X Defender platform, equipped with SHOXS Shock Mitigating Seats.

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The SHOXS engineering and sales team has been working with Dutch Boat Builder Xtenders to create a custom seat specifically designed to work ergonomically with the their proprietary console and integrate with the onboard overhead support structures. Xtenders specialize in building custom carbon fiber, super light weight yacht tenders. They employ production technology gleaned from Formula 1 and the aerospace industry, providing optimal structural performance while keeping weight to a minimum.

Polaris Defense, a division of Polaris Industries Inc. is launching a new ultra-light combat vehicle - the DAGOR™ at the 2014 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting, in Washington, D.C. , Oct. 13-15. The DAGOR was designed and tested, and is now under contract and in production – all in less than two years – leveraging Polaris’ world class off-road engineering and design capability, to meet an emerging threat to SOF and light infantry forces.

The DAGOR has world-class capability in extreme off-road terrain at full payload. The purpose-built vehicle is designed with trophy truck-inspired suspension to carry 3,250 lbs of payload or a 9-man infantry squad at a higher rate of speed over terrain usually traveled on foot. This allows the warfighter to move quickly to the objective with mission-critical equipment.

“The DAGOR was engineered to meet a very demanding set of light-mobility needs for our customer,” said Jed Leonard, manager of Advanced Mobility Platforms, and Polaris Defense. “It provides the optimal balance of rapid air transportability, payload and advanced mobility. The design offers our customers a modular, light-weight platform to support a variety of expeditionary missions.”

Riverine Command Boats are a lesser known component of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which operates in the Persian Gulf region. They mostly sail in the shadows of the larger deck Navy warships that frequent the area and gobble up most of the attention. These extremely fast, armed crafts crewed by approximately eight sailors can perform a wide range of missions and have the capacity to carry special forces or small U.S. Marine units into coastal waters where larger warships simply cannot - making them a highly versatile asset. Safety and ergonomic features including SHOXS Shock Mitigation seating maximizes efficiency, safety and performance.

We are excited to welcome Tony Van Meter to the SHOXS team. Tony joins us as Director of Business Development — EAST and will be managing client relations and representing SHOXS and CDG Coast Dynamics Group with a focus on Asia Pacific, Latin America and Western U.S. regions.

Tony brings with him a wealth of industry experience and a true talent for building and nurturing strong customer relationships. His extensive knowledge of State and Local Law Enforcement, Fire and Maritime industries mean he is able to deeply relate to customer needs as well as the issues and capabilities that are most important to them when choosing shock mitigated seating for current and future projects.

SHOXS is well renowned for building the safest, most technologically advanced shock mitigated boat seats in the world, but another area of expertise that isn’t well known is our ability to help customers build and concept custom deck layouts for any kind of vessel depending on specific mission profiles.

For military and security applications, the next generation of RHIBs and HSC will need to be larger, faster, multi-role craft with the same navigation, communication and information systems that are found on a ship’s bridge. Many fast craft will include modular design features that allow them to vary their internal and deck layouts for different mission profiles or as their role changes over time.

Docked in one of four slips that Customs and Border Protection leases at the Port of Port Angeles' Boat Haven is the 38-foot version of the Interceptor. It's called a Secure-Around-Flotation-Equipped boat, and it's made to be unsinkable. It sports four, 300-horsepower engines, each with its own throttle. The paramilitary speedboat is capable of cruising at 60 mph. A foam collar wrapped around the hull helps absorb the shock that's inevitable — even on placid waters — along with expertly constructed SHOXS seats that accordion slightly with every bounce, and seat arm-rests that curl up at the end for ready gripping while you sit tight.

Algerian terrorist Ahmed Ressam was on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport when he was nabbed in Port Angeles Dec. 14, 1999, by U.S. Customs inspectors shortly after driving off the Port Angeles-Victoria ferry, MV Coho. Because of Ressam, this area was pinpointed as a threat for terrorists coming through.

When it comes to protecting the waters from threats to national security — those grips sure came in handy. As though turning sharply on a motorcycle, the boat is plowed to a white-knuckle angle that seemed to bring passengers face-to-face with the sea.

“It's difficult to capsize,” Michienzi said reassuringly.

Standardizing the way marine shock mitigating seat performances are tested and reported will pave the way for customers to better understand which products are best for their application and reduce the potential for injury. The first official meeting of the so-called “Working Group 18” was hosted 2-3 September in Berlin, Germany by ISO/DIN. Part of the larger ISO technical group (TC104) charged with matters concerning the health effects of repeated shock and vibration, SHOXS is proud to be the official working group representative for Canada.

SHOXS participated with national and industry representatives from around the globe, including the UK Ministry of Defense, US Navy and Japan in discussing how shock mitigating seats will best be tested in a consistent, understandable, scientifically valid way. Coming to a consensus on occupant payloads, impulse durations, input magnitudes, measurement techniques and reporting formats is no easy task, but will all be part of the standard when it is published. In the end, it’s all to benefit the customer, who will be able to readily identify and more easily specify superior performing marine seats for their applications.

The Special Operations Forces Industry Conference provides a forum for military, government, academia, and industry stakeholders to network and discuss current and future challenges and how to best support our Special Operations Forces (SOF) around the globe.

SHOXS had an interesting array of shock absorbing seats at SOFIC 2014. There is a considerable amount of sophistication that goes into these seats, for example instrument consoles, which are integral to the seat and can be manufactured to fit any instrument cluster. SHOXS seats use a semi-active suspension system, which is a computer based approach that adjusts suspension parameters for varying conditions. Occupant weight is also considered in the operation of the seat resulting in a broader dampening or shock absorption across a wide array of conditions.