1. 60 SEMANewsJune2011
BUSINESSSEMA
ByChadSimon
Expand Your Brand
By Supplying the Military, Opportunities
Exist to Reach a Far Wider Customer Base
Adapting to a need to deploy troops anywhere in the world, U.S. military forces find
themselves requiring trucks and transportation equipment more than ever before.
This trend has created a steady opportunity for businesses in the automotive after-
market to expand their customer base, while helping to supply the military with
quality specialty-equipment products. High-performance brakes and engine equip-
ment, blast-attenuating seats and specialized equipment for vehicles operating at
high altitudes and in challenging terrain are among the parts in demand.
To learn what it takes to market prod-
uct for use by American armed services,
we talked to some specialty-equipment
manufacturers that have branched out
from traditional commercial sales to work
with military suppliers. Among those will-
ing to share their experiences were FOX
Racing Shox, ICON Vehicle Dynam-
ics, Wilwood Engineering, MasterCraft
Safety, Roush Yates Performance Prod-
ucts and Rhino Linings.
Supplying the Military
The technology developed over the past three decades
for light, medium and heavy vehicles operating in off-
road terrain translates well to military requirements,
particularly in theaters such as Afghanistan, according
to Brian Godfrey, FOX Racing Shox’s powersports
division marketing manager.
FOX Racing Shox has been a military supplier since
2003, starting with shocks for the unmanned Predator
B. Marvin Engineering has been using FOX shocks
n The M-ATV is a Mine Resis-
tant Ambush Protected (MRAP)
all-terrain vehicle and, at a curb
weight of 25,000 lbs., is the small-
est vehicle Oshkosh Defense has
made for the U.S. military.

2. www.semanews.com 61
n The MaseterCraft Safety
Defense blast-attenuation
Crew Seat weighs between
15–29 lbs., compared to
competitive seats that
weigh between 70–100 lbs.
since 2005, and in 2007, the company
created a vehicle-mobility solution for a
British army vehicle known as the Jackal.
FOX—which created a separate division
to handle military projects called FOX
Defense Suspension—sells a range of pas-
sive dampers, high-performance position-
sensitive coilovers and air-spring shock
absorbers.
In the case of ICON Vehicle Dynamics,
word of mouth has proved to be a powerful
tool. “Once you get your foot in the door,
business just spreads like wildfire,” said
Jeremy Johnson, ICON sales and market-
ing. “We had a one-time contract with the
Israeli military for Ford components for
about 150 vehicles, and we continue to
contract with Oshkosh Defense to outfit
their F-550s. The engineer we’ve been
dealing with at Oshkosh spread our name
through some of their fire and rescue
division. We mostly sell them fabricated
components that we already make and
also custom components, including frame
brackets for radius arms and adjustable
Panhard bars.”
Wilwood Engineering, a first-tier sup-
plier, provides brakes, calipers, rotors and
pads for military Humvees (HMMWV) to
AM General, which sells the vehicles to the
military. The military customer wanted to
upgrade from Jeeps to field combat tactical
vehicles, which can absorb gunshots and
offer increased durability in the field. A
heavier vehicle was the result, according
to Ken Hale, Wilwood’s director of sales
and marketing.
The HMMWV brakes that came from
the original factory were wearing out
quickly in a desert environment. It also
took a long time to change out the pads
because of the way they were designed.
Wilwood redesigned the brake system for
four-wheel vehicles so that the pads could
be changed out in less than half the time.
This also resulted in the brakes lasting
twice as long.
MasterCraft Safety became involved in
the U.S. Army’s low-signature-cab program
in 2006. At the beginning of the current
conflicts in the Middle East, most of the
army’s tactical vehicles were not armored,
so a rush method was needed to get armor
into the field. The company that developed
the low-signature cab ended up choosing
MasterCraft’s blast-attenuating seat for its
off-road capabilities, according to Mike
Ross, MasterCraft’s director of technology.
“A military OEM contacted us, and we
went through a test cycle with them,” Ross
said. “This particular seat was new to the
military. The soldiers liked it, and we knew
the seat had very good energy attenuation.
As the conflicts evolved, the military real-
ized they needed seats that absorbed a lot
of energy.”
The company is currently selling to five
or six OEMs, but the market is slowing
down considerably across the board due to
the downturn in need. There are currently
about 25,000 to 30,000 trucks in the field
with MasterCraft Safety seats in them,
according to Ross.
One of MasterCraft’s business partners
in selling custom products, Roush Yates
Performance Products also uses custom
alternators and lithium
n Wilwood Engineering provides brakes, calipers, rotors and pads for military Humvees to
AM General, which sells the vehicles to the military.
• Defense and military buyers are keen
to acquire specialized equipment to
enhance vehicle performance and safety.
• Oftentimes, off-the-shelf aftermarket
parts made by SEMA members can
satisfy their needs.
• Military buyers from a variety of dif-
ferent services and organizations regu-
larly attend the SEMA Show.
• Among the requirements are that all
parts be made in the United States,
and sometimes extensive testing must
be conducted.
Executive Summary:

3. 62 SEMANewsJune2011
SEMAn BUSINESS
n Rhino Linings’ Battle Jacket is designed to prevent or minimize fuel leakage on fuel tank-
ers due to small arms fire.
batteries to solve power issues. Most of the
parts made by Roush Yates are specialized,
said Bucky Gregory, the company’s vice
president of sales.
“A good example of this is seatbelts,”
he said. “Specialized military belts have
a one-hand release to make it easy to exit
the vehicle.”
Rhino Linings Corp. initially became
involved in military sales with an Israeli
company called Mofett in designing a pat-
ented, lightweight, ballistic armament mate-
rial using the Rhino Linings spray cast
elastomer as a bonding agent. That particu-
lar design was incorporated in several vehicle
designs, such as the Advanced Amphibious
Assault Vehicle, Stryker and other arma-
ment packages that are applied to military
vehicles. It allows the vehicle to take 20-mm
hits without penetration, according to Ron
LoPresto, Rhino’s technical director.
For one of Rhino’s customers—High
Impact Technologies—the company
designed a system called Battle Jacket, which
prevents or minimizes fuel leakage on fuel
tankers due to small arms fire. The Battle
Jacket is used in combination with an ingre-
dient that HIT provides for Rhino’s armor
elastomer—a self-sealing product that is
applied to the exterior of all fuel tanks.
“These units can take multiple hits from
armor-piercing projectiles and not leak
whatsoever,” LoPresto said. “We spent sev-
eral months in Iraq training the applicators
on how to spray the tankers.”
Oshkosh Defense supplies heavy,
medium and light vehicles to the U.S. Army
and Marines, and sometimes turns to after-
market manufacturers to help meet needs
for components. Its benchmark product
is the company’s proprietary TAK-4 inde-
pendent suspension, which is the highest
mobility performing suspension available,
according to Rob Messina, the company’s
vice president of core technology. Oshkosh
also provides integrated armor solutions and
is a total vehicle manufacturer in the tactical
wheeled vehicle fleet. The Heavy Equip-
ment Transporter is built around trailering
tanks. The M-ATV is a Mine Resistant
Ambush Protected all-terrain vehicle and,
at a curb weight of 25,000 lbs., is the
smallest vehicle Oshkosh has made for the
U.S. military. The military is continuously
looking for mobile vehicles with a high
level of protection, and the M-ATV has
HMMWV level of mobility with Mine
Resistant Ambush Protected level of pro-
tection against IED-type blasts, according
to Messina.
Increasingly, Oshkosh is becoming as
well-known for the company’s aftermarket
support as it is for vehicle design and pro-
duction. Oftentimes, Oshkosh will receive
a request for a specific capability before
proving functionality of that capability
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4. www.semanews.com 63
n FOX Defense Suspension sells a range of
passive dampers, high-performance posi-
tion-sensitive coilovers and air-spring shock
absorbers to the military.
with what’s called a “first article test,”
which can be extensive because it’s negoti-
ated and collaboratively decided upon by
the government.
How to Gain Military Approval
It takes patience, commitment and flex-
ibility to sell to the military—which, like
commercial customers, is interested in
affordability, quality and the capability to
deliver the right product on time, FOX’s
Godfrey said.
Many products are applicable to off-road
enthusiasts and military customers alike.
The defense business represents a new mar-
ket completely, exposing FOX’s brand to the
United States and allied forces and defense
contractors in the United States and abroad.
There are various types of military approval,
but the key thing is to demonstrate results.
“The companies we sell to are not hard to
deal with because we get great communica-
tion across the board,” ICON’s Johnson
said. “If we need to change something on
our part, we’re able to get them a revised part
the same day.”
But attracting military buyers can be a rig-
orous process. They will most likely request
full 3-D CAD drawings to drop into the
files with which they’re currently working.
Sometimes they want material specifications,
and all parts must be made in the United
States, even the bolts.
To obtain military approval, ICON offers
sample parts for evaluation. “It all comes
down to product testing,” Johnson said.
“If they like the design and the way it
bolts to the vehicle, then you don’t have to
change anything.”
Wilwood’s modus operandi is similar to
ICON’s, where it manufactures the product
and submits it to the military for approval.
If the buyers like it, they make an offer. In
order for a company to keep bidding on
military contracts, all parts must qualify for
rigid Six-Sigma quality, according to Hale.
Roman Spandrio, Wilwood’s applica-
tions engineering manager, believes that his
company fits the supply partner profile for
which military and government agencies
are looking.
“We’re an American company and con-
sidered a small business, which are attractive
qualities for a government and military sup-
plier,” Spandrio said. “Beyond that, we’re
an engineering company that offers the full
spectrum of support. We’re a solutions part-
ner on the engineering end in spec’ing out
the product necessary to meet the military’s
performance and durability goals. We also
have integrated our accounting personnel,
and we have field service representatives
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5. 64 SEMANewsJune2011
SEMAn BUSINESS
who are able to support test sites as well as
manufacturing and assembly and ongoing
engineering support. To have one company
that you can call and have all that taken care
of is not only an advantage to the military
but to any customer.”
MasterCraft’s seats have undergone test-
ing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds—the
army’s test center in Maryland. “To be con-
sidered for a military vehicle, you’re going
to have to go through the rigorous testing
that all military vehicles go through,” said
Kelli Willmore, MasterCraft’s vice president
of marketing. “Sometimes it takes months;
sometimes it takes years.”
Instead of working directly with military
buyers, MasterCraft works with military
engineers, so it’s necessary to sell them on
the product first. Companies are looking
outside of their normal realm, and they’re
going to the SEMA Show and looking to
the racing and aftermarket industries to
make their vehicles faster and lighter to
meet certain weight requirements. Accord-
ing to Willmore, MasterCraft’s seats weigh
between 15–29 lbs., compared to competi-
tive seats that weigh between 70–100 lbs.
But before a company can sell anything
to the military, certain requirements must
be met. “When we first started working
with them, they were just starting to look
at occupant safety in a different way,” Will-
more said. “It wasn’t just armor; it was
systems inside the vehicle that work with the
armament to contain and protect the occu-
pant. The military tested our seats, and we
also independently verified them. One such
test we have performed was to the NATO
Stanag 4569 Level 2a standard.”
Military buyers are also looking for dura-
bility, longevity, reusability and products
that are made of non-hazardous materials to
both the occupant and environment, Rhino
Linings’ LoPresto said. They are becoming
more astute customers, and they don’t want
products that will deteriorate due to abuse
or corrosion.
“We have also developed our product so
it’s a good material for blast mitigation,”
LoPresto said. “After the attack in Saudi
Arabia on Khobar Towers in 1996 that
killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel, we did
a test with the Air Force where you could
reduce the standoff from 200 ft. to 100 ft.
and still maintain a better than 90% surviv-
ability rate.”
Military vs. Commercial Market
For an aftermarket manufacturer, the
ideal situation would be to supply the exact
same parts to the military that are already in
the civilian catalog. Sometimes it works that
way, sometimes not, but for the most part
the specifications demanded by the military
customer are very similar, if not identical, to
the civilian product.
At ICON, some components are varia-
tions of components already made, so the
company adapts the existing component.
“For instance, the military will build some-
thing for an F-550, where we’ll make it for
an F-250 or F-350,” Johnson explained.
“We’ll have to change the bracket, but as far
as design and changing the part’s strength,
it’s all the same. Our off-the-shelf items are
good enough for all the military applications
we’ve done so far.”
Military Buyers at the SEMA
Show: In Their Own Words
You probably wouldn’t know it just
by surveying the SEMA Show floor, but
military buyers dressed in civilian clothing
regularly attend the Show.
In 2010, U.S. Air Force Tech Sergeant
Abelardo Zavala attended the SEMA Show
for his fifth time. He was looking for new
and innovative tools and test equipment
that could benefit his unit.
“I go to the Show and collect literature
and bring it back to my units to determine
how we can use a certain product,” Zavala
said. “The SEMA Show is a great forum to
see what’s out there.”
Jesse Burkhart of Navy Special War-
fare Group ONE (NSWGO), located in
Imperial Beach, California, has attended
the SEMA Show for the past four years.
He searches for any new tools on the
market that can be used in the field, such
as for 4WD, off-road and utility vehicles.
He said that NSWGO is different from
the mainstream military, and the after-
market fits its niche because the unit uses
more specialized equipment to fulfill its
needs than a regular unit would use.
When shopping for a product, Burkhart
wants someone who speaks the same lan-
guage as he does as far as going off-road
and knowing the conditions in which
his unit operates. If he finds a company
that meets his needs and it’s the only
one that can, he sole-sources through
that company. Otherwise, he bids
on contracts.
“We found some new air-compres-
sor jacks from Rack Jack at the SEMA
Show that are more portable than a floor
jack,” Burkhart said. “We don’t attend
any other trade shows because we fig-
ure that everything we need to see is at
the SEMA Show; it’s one-stop shopping.
When we go, we get a lot of good ideas
of what’s available by talking to guys in
the industry.”
n Some of Wilwood’s military sales are of
products that are essentially the same as
what they sell to the enthusiast market.

6. www.semanews.com 65
Some of the products Wilwood sup-
plies to the military are different from the
ones sold to the aftermarket, while others
are direct aftermarket products sold for
military applications. All of it is propriety
product, and some evolve on the basis of a
military application.
“Some are slight homologations of what
we currently provide to the aftermarket, and
some are direct, currently supplied aftermar-
ket products that bolt right on to military
applications,” Spandrio said. “But in the
end, the two are essentially the same. That’s
an advantage for military supply because
it bypasses a lot of the International Trade
and Arms requirements. If they can get sup-
plied to them what they need to meet their
performance, durability and pricing targets
without having to reinvent anything, it saves
a lot of effort and logistics.”
At MasterCraft Safety, the mounting
positions on the seats themselves are the only
Wilwood’s military programs require con-
fidentiality and non-disclosure, which is at
the forefront of any new endeavor. “If they
have spec’d our product, sometimes we’re
not even sure of the exact application,”
Spandrio said. “We encourage them to
involve us so when troubleshooting manag-
ers come into play or they need some level of
field support, we’re able to understand their
application a little better.”
MasterCraft Safety sells its commercial
off-the-shelf products directly to OEMs, the
Defense Logistics Agency and also military
units. Ross said that there is a great deal of
volume involved initially. And because all
MasterCraft Safety seats have been developed
in-house, no U.S. government dollars are
involved in product R&D, testing or tooling,
which means the army can purchase Master-
Craft’s commercial part number.
The military purchases from Roush Yates
in minimal quantities based on usage. “It’s
can be integrated into a military applications.
In 2010, there were more than 50 military
personnel in attendance.
Speaking about FOX Shox, Godfrey said,
“Contacts made at SEMA have supported our
military business efforts.”
ICON also exhibits at the SEMA Show
and has been approached by military buyers.
As the company’s product image gains more
exposure, Johnson expects to gain more busi-
ness this year.
Roush Yates also reports a substantial mili-
tary presence at the SEMA Show. “They’re
looking for resources—new products that
would fit into their market that come from
our industry,” Gregory said.
Heightened Sense of Pride
Most aftermarket professionals agree that
supplying the U.S. armed forces is a reward-
ing experience on a personal level, since their
products are designed to save the lives of the
men and women who are fighting to defend
our country and freedom.
In FOX’s case, selling products that
improve the off-road mobility of military
vehicles enhances the survivability of young
men and women who are willing to make
the ultimate sacrifice. “If we can keep just one
more person alive than would otherwise be the
case, our efforts are worth it,” Godfrey said.
Roush Yates and many of its business part-
ners provide safety to the troops in the field.
“It’s anything from making sure the vehicle
has enough power and electricity to support
communications to having seats and restraint
systems that protect them,” Gregory said.
“We’re helping to protect the people who are
protecting us.”
FOX Racing Shox
www.FOXracingshox.com
ICON Vehicle Dynamics
www.ICONvehicledynamics.com
MasterCraft Safety
www.mastercraftsafety.com
Oshkosh Defense
www.oshkoshdefense.com
Rhino Linings Corp.
www.rhinolinings.com
Roush Yates Performance Products
www.roushyates.com
Wilwood Engineering
www.wilwood.com
Source Box:
For an aftermarket manufacturer,
the ideal situation would be to supply the
exact same parts to the military that are
already in the civilian catalog. Sometimes
it works that way, sometimes not...
difference between those sold to the military
versus the commercial market, while many
of Roush Yates’ parts, including springs and
shocks, are custom parts built for specific
units. Other parts, including switches and
hoses, are common parts.
Purchasing Patterns
There is no real pattern when it comes to
order volumes. Customers vary by manu-
facturer, ranging from the U.S. government
to OEMs to the military units themselves.
Most seem to purchase according to their
needs. With both large- and small-volume
orders, Wilwood sells directly to the U.S.
government, military bases, various depots
and final-tier vehicle manufacturers.
“We’re working with all the major
defense contractors,” Spandrio said. “We
have forecasts that go out six months—
some even further—and it’s a consistent
product supply. If they’re buying com-
mercial, off-the-shelf stuff, they have an
advantage because of economies of scale,
which include pricing and delivery, because
we’re producing it for other customers
as well.”
not a gravy train; you’ve got to work for their
business,” Gregory said. “The military is
starting to realize that a lot of companies they
do business with charge them more than our
market would support, so they’re finding out
that if they come back to independent com-
panies like us, we can do a couple of things
for them. For one, we have experience with
many of the products they want to use, so we
can save them time and money by offering
solutions to their problems.”
In other cases, volumes can be quite sub-
stantial. The OEMs buy truckload quantities
from Rhino on a weekly or biweekly basis,
according to LoPresto. The Battle Jacket is
not a closely guarded product compared to
the armament material, but there are restric-
tions on where it can be sold (only to friendly
nations, for instance).
Military Buyers at the Show
In addition to attending military shows,
military buyers, engineers and organizations,
such as the Association of the United States
Army, have been attending the SEMA Show
in recent years in search of the latest after-
market products, curious to learn how they