Is this the new jeep?
The army goes light to move a squad. Electric too?
The US Army is moving to full production of a vehicle. Could it be the new jeep? Here, and in the headline, jeep is not capitalized purposely. This is not about a brand- it’s about a vehicle that could take on the role the Willys MB. The Willys was the iconic lightweight reconnaissance transport of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. It’s nickname, which stuck, is jeep (a pronunciation of GP for general purpose?).
Another vehicle with a nickname replaced the jeep. The Humvee was developed in the 1970s and saw its first combat in the late 1980s. The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV That’s why it’s called a Humvee) carries four soldiers as the original jeep could.
But the Humvee is a much heavier vehicle and can be armored to protect the occupants. US Airborne forces move fast and have wanted a quicker, lighter vehicle for a while. Now they are getting such a vehicle.
Meet the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV). It’s being built by General Motors Defense and is based on the platform of one of its popular trucks. The ISV is designed to move paratroopers to the front quickly. It can fit inside a Chinook helicopter or be slung below a Blackhawk for transport. The Army is testing whether the ISV can parachute with the paratroopers. The Army has experimented with off-road vehicles and trunk variants for decades, but the ISV is a significant mobility move.
The Army recently approved full-rate production of the ISV. GM Defense has a contract for $214 million to build about 650 vehicles. The Army says it envisions buying a total of 2,500 of the ISVs over the timeframe for the program.
GM Defense highlights that 90% of the parts for the ISV are off the shelf. That’s because the ISV is built on the Chevy Colorado ZR2 truck platform. Three hundred have already been delivered and many have been deployed to the 82nd and 101st Airborne.
But the ISV had a bumpy road getting here. A testing directorate in the Army found issues with reliability, cramped seating, inability to reach cargo, and a lack of armor. GM and the Army say they made improvements to earn the full-production run. The product director for the Army’s Ground Mobility Office, John Hufstedler, said GM has, “implemented corrective actions for all critical reliability issues discovered during early reliability testing.”
As for lack of armor, the Army says the ISV was never developed to be in combat, rather to get troops close to it. “As there is no requirement for protection or armor, the unit on the ISV is intended to avoid threats, where possible. If engaged, units are intended to disengage and when appropriate, disembark,” Hufstedler said.
This may be just the beginning of this truck/troop carrier. GM has several other versions on the drawing board, including communication trucks and an ambulance version. The big evolution may be an electric version. All branches of the military are looking at electrification.
In the case of the ISV, an EV version could provide a quiet approach to the frontlines for troops. GM built an EV version two years ago, which it says can provide, “Silent Watch, Silent Drive, and Silent Operation with [a] low acoustic and thermal signature.”
Will the ISV be the next jeep? Probably not. The Army is planning less than 3,000 while it is expected to have between 20,000- 50,000 of the Humvee’s replacement. That is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), which looks a lot like its predecessor with protective armor. It’s quite possible that, like the Hummer, a carmaker could try to make a civilian version of the JLTV.
For now, it’s the other way around. GM is turning its civilian Colorado truck into a fast, lightweight transport the paratroopers want. Its attributes are closer to the jeep than the Humvee or JLTV. Now we will see what the soldiers think.