1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this test method is to replicate the railroad car impact conditions that occur during the life of transport of systems, subsystems and units, hereafter called materiel, and the tiedown arrangements during the specified logistic conditions. The requirements of this Method are based on the commercial rail transport requirements of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Open Top Loading Rules.
NOTE: Although the number of railroad car impacts that occur throughout the life of the materiel may exceed the number applied in this Method, it is unlikely that impacts at or above 12.9 km/h (8 mph) will occur more often than the impacts defined in the Method.
1.2 Application
The rail impact test is intended to test materiel that will be transported by rail; to determine the effect of railroad car impacts that may occur during rail shipment, to verify the structural integrity of the materiel, to evaluate the adequacy of the tiedown system and the tiedown procedures, and to assess transportability (see paragraph 6.1, reference c definitions) in accordance with Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command Transportation Engineering Agency (SDDCTEA) policy. All items are to be tested at their maximum gross weight (fully loaded) rating unless otherwise specified in the transportability requirements for the materiel (see paragraph 4.2b).
1.3 Limitations
This method is not intended for railcar crash conditions, or for separate testing of small, individually packaged pieces of materiel that would normally be shipped (and tested) when mounted on a pallet, or as part of larger materiel. For the latter, the referenced documents (paragraph 6.1) provide guidance on environments measured during rail impact that may be useful in specially tailored laboratory testing. All developed loads consisting of ammunition and explosive items must be reviewed and approved by the appropriate approval authority (see paragraph 6.1, reference f).