GM Defense has started construction on the facility that will build the company’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) for the U.S. Army.
The ISV will be built at General Motors’ existing technical center in Concord, North Carolina. Renovations at the plant are expected to continue into early spring, with the production line set to start in April. GM Defense will build 649 examples of the new ISV at the facility and will have support for the production of up to 2,065 vehicles total with additional authorization over an eight-year period.
“This facility will enable us to meet our customer’s timeline for delivery while continuing our journey to bring commercial technologies and transformative mobility solutions to the defense market,” Tim Herrick, interim president of GM Defense, said in a prepared statement.
GM was awarded the $214.3 million government contract to build the GM ISV for the U.S. Army. The vehicle is based on the Chevy Colorado ZR2 and “was uniquely engineered to fulfill military requirements and designed to provide rapid ground mobility,” for infantry personnel. Despite being specifically engineered for military purposes, the vehicle uses 90 percent commercial-off-the-shelf parts, including the Colorado ZR2’s MultiMatic DSSV dampers and various Chevrolet Performance racing components.
The location of the GM ISV assembly facility is convenient, as it is located right near NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsport’s headquarters. Hendrick Motorsports is responsible for supplying the chrome-moly steel exoskeleton of the GM ISV frame, putting its knowledge making race car roll cages to very good use.
GM Defense also has a teaming agreement with Ricardo Defense to provide technical support to the U.S. Army for the GM ISV. Ricardo will be responsible for the vehicle’s technical manual development as well as equipment training, package fielding and field service support, among other support-related items.
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Comments
This truck still runs on fossil fuels. It is unacceptable.
Just give our troops a Bolt instead. They can save the country while saving the planet.
Hope you are kidding….
Are you serious? Save your green politics for the grocery haulers. They have no place on the battlefield. Performance there saves lives. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a high voltage batterry that gets hit by gunfire.
What’s the point of this vehicle?
Where would it be used?
It has absolutely NO protection against IEDs.