Although an HD variant of the Chevy Suburban hasn’t been available to the public for over a decade, the GM Defense division has an HD SUV in the works. Based heavily on the Chevy Suburban that rides on the T1 platform, the HD SUV is an armored vehicle with an HD chassis built “to support missions requiring protected mobility.” GM says the HD SUV’s chassis and suspension support increased performance requirements, a higher payload capacity, and a greater Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR).
The HD SUV will be available in 1LT and 2LT trim levels. The 1LT will get bench seats in the second and third rows, while the 2LT will feature second-row captain’s chairs and third-row jump seats. Leather seating (heated in front) is standard in both. In addition to the HD chassis, other improvements over the GM Defense-spec Suburban include a heavy-duty air filter, a 360-amp alternator, and a rear camera mirror.
The standard engine in the GM Defense HD SUV is the 6.2L L87 V8 engine, which is optional in the Chevy Suburban. It’s also available with the 3.0L LZ0 I6 turbodiesel Duramax engine, which is optional in the Suburban as well. The full-size SUV’s Duramax option got better for the 2025 model year, and the HD SUV shares those updates.
The Suburban’s L87 V8 is rated at 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque, and the LZ0 diesel makes 305 horsepower and 495 pound-feet of torque. Like the GM Defense version of the Suburban, every HD SUV comes standard with four-wheel drive.
Although the HD SUV is a separate model from the Chevy Suburban and technically not a Chevy at all, based on the images we’ve seen so far from GM Defense, the two SUVs have a lot in common aesthetically. The HD SUV wears Chevy Bowtie emblems and even has “Suburban” badging on the front doors. Some of the differences in the HD SUV include red and blue lights hidden throughout the body and beefier window frames.
The HD SUV is the result of a contract awarded to GM Defense by the U.S. State Department in 2023 with a $300 million ceiling. Final assembly of the HD SUV will be performed at the Concord, North Carolina facility. This assembly plant is specifically for GM Defense products and currently produces the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), a military vehicle based on the Chevy Colorado ZR2.
Comments
Needs the 2.7L for reliability.
2.7 liter for reliability? Really? Never would have thought of that!
I need to order ten for civilian purposes. How do I go about this?
3.0 will probably be deleted too. Rules for thee not for me.
Good luck to anyone with the 3.0 diesel and its “achilles heel” won’t start cranking issues that GM has yet to figure out. Then there’s the ultimate engineering stoopidity of designing an engine with a rubber, “belt driven” oil pump that is immersed in the engine’s oil and requires the cab of the truck to be taken off to replace a belt at about 150k.