The US Army has awarded GM Defense and its strategic partner Ricardo a US$214.3 million production contract to build, field, and sustain the Army’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV). The ISV is designed to provide rapid ground mobility transportation in a highly flexible, light, all-terrain, air-droppable vehicle intended for use by a nine-solider infantry squad moving within “close battle areas”. The GM Defense ISV is founded on the award-winning 2020 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 platform and leverages 90 percent commercial off-the-shelf parts, resulting in high manufacturing efficiencies, ease of maintenance, and a low risk global supply chain.
In 2019, GM Defense partnered with Ricardo after the US Army awarded three US$1 million contracts to competing industry consortia to develop ISV prototypes for testing, evaluation, and down-selection for the developmental testing, solider evaluations, and a rigorous source selection process, the U.S. Army has announced the selection of GM Defense as the winner of the ISV full production contract.
Ricardo will lead the ISV Integrated Product Support (IPS) portions of the contract, which include technical manual development, new equipment training, provisioning, total package fielding, and field service support. In addition, Ricardo will assist GM Defense in technical areas that include safety, reliability, and cybersecurity.