The US Army has taken delivery of the first of 649 Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISV) on order from General Motors Defense at a cost of approximately €177M, the company has announced. The firm has opened a new plant for production, where assembly will continue from production number 28, at a rate of nine vehicles per month. The US Army has recently reduced the monthly purchase quantity for budgetary reasons (among others) although the total approved requirement is 2,065 vehicles.
The ISV is based on the architecture of the 2020 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 and uses Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) parts such as suspension components. The ISV’s Roll Over Protection Structure (ROPS) is designed to fit inside a CH-47 CHINOOK. When the ROPS is folded up, the vehicle is 218.7 cm high; when folded down, this height is reduced to 187.7 cm.
ISV Features and Variants
The ISV is 207.8 cm wide, 526 cm long and has an unladen weight of less than 2.3 tonnes with a payload of 1.5 tonnes. Of the nine seats, five are forward-facing, two rear-facing and one to each side. With a drive power of 205 kW, the unprotected vehicle achieves a very high drive power of more than 50 kW/t. The US Army does not disclose the maximum speed it can achieve.
On 4 May 2021, GM Defense presented an all-electric version of the ISV, with the battery required for this housed in the rear of the vehicle. On one battery charge, the ISV can drive four hours or 240 km off-road. A full charge with DC fast charging takes one hour. The US Army is currently investigating whether and how electrically powered land vehicles can be deployed worldwide. Since charging the vehicles has proven to be critical so far, the development of a charging infrastructure is part of the investigation programme.
Gerhard Heiming
