General Motors announced on June 29 that its defense division, GM Defense LLC, had received a contract for $214.3 million from the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, to build a new vehicle for the U.S. Army—an Infantry Squad Vehicle, or ISV. The total production contract award is $214.3 million for 649 units of a planned 2,065 vehicles the Army intends to acquire.
The new infantry vehicle is designed to carry nine soldiers at a time through rugged, battlefield conditions. According to General Motors, the vehicle, based on the 2020 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2’s truck architecture, will be made with 90% commercial off-the-shelf parts. Additionally, the is light enough to be carried by a Blackhawk helicopter from a sling, and compact enough to fit inside a Chinook helicopter.
“Winning this Army award is well-deserved recognition for the hard work and dedication of our GM Defense team and their production of a fantastic vehicle. We are confident the GMD ISV will meet and exceed all of our customers’ requirements,” said David Albritton, president of GM Defense. In a statement, he called it “an honor” to design and build technology for the Army.
To make the vehicle, GM Defense will partner with Ricardo Defense, Inc. GM Defense previously partnered with Ricardo Defense in 2019, when the U.S. Army awarded three $1 million contracts to companies developing prototypes for what became the design for the ISV.
“The entire Ricardo team is proud to continue our work with GM Defense on the ISV contract,” said Chet Gryczan, president of Ricardo Defense. “The ISV will showcase the speed at which the Army can rapidly produce, field and sustain new equipment by leveraging a proven commercially available vehicle and the global supply chain infrastructure of General Motors, supported by Ricardo,” he said in a statement.
