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It is the ultimate crash test dummy - and could save the lives of hundreds of soldiers.

The US Army has revealed its first blast test dummy.

It hopes the mannequin will help design new vehicles tough enough to survive being blown up. 

US Army bosses hope the mannequin will help design new vehicles tough enough to survive being blown up.

Called the Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan), the project is run by the US Army Research Development and Engineering Command.

It combines military casualty data from Iraq and Afghanistan with new biomedical sensors.

Using this data, researchers built a new mannequin to study combat blast effects on the human body in a vehicle and the resulting injuries.

The US Army contracted California-based Diversified Technical Systems (DTS) to help develop the first instrumented dummy designed for military vehicle blast testing.

The new test device will be used to assess potential skeletal injuries of soldiers exposed to underbody blast (UBB) events like those from improvised explosive devices (IED) commonly found in combat zones. 

The WIAMan will be used in Department of Defense live fire test and evaluation for ground vehicles, including seats and interiors, as well as soldier body armour and tactical gear.

Each WIAMan will be equipped with a small 6DX PRO sensor to simulate the weight distribution and size of a human body. The sensor is capable of recording up to 16 GB data during military testing, according to DTS.

'We are honored by the fact that the U.S. Army trusts DTS as lead on a project of this magnitude,' said DTS co-founder and company President Steve Pruitt. 

'WIAMan is an exciting project because it involves not only designing a brand new test dummy, but delivering a complete test instrument with sensors and the next generation data acquisition system.'

Each WIAMan will be equipped with a small 6DX PRO sensor set that DTS created to simulate the weight distribution and size of a human body. 

The sensor is capable of recording up to 16 GB data during military testing, according to DTS. 

The new test device will be used to assess potential skeletal injuries of soldiers exposed to underbody blast (UBB) events like those from improvised explosive devices (IED) commonly found in combat zones.

DTS has a long history working with the military on projects including vehicle black boxes for capturing blast events, hundreds of which are currently fielded in war zones. 

In addition, DTS has shipped over 58,000 internally mounted helmet sensors, fielded by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, that capture soldier impact data for the medical community to aid in the assessment of soldier injuries such as MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury).

Dummies are common stand-ins for people in testing not only cars, but also arcticwear, radiation protection, fireproof garments, pedestrian safety systems, and crash helmets, as well as medical research.