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Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison to Spawn New Infantry Squad Vehicle for U.S. Army

On the lookout for the next generation Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), the U.S. Army announced last week the shortlist of companies selected to get funding for their projects. These companies are Oshkosh, Flyer, and GM Defense.
GM Infantry Squad Vehicle 11 photos
Photo: GM
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Each of the companies received $1 million in funding to develop a vehicle capable of carrying up to nine soldiers at highway speeds on pavement and off-road. The vehicles will also have to be light enough to be sling-loaded from a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, and compact enough to to be carried inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

GM’s idea for the project is a machine based on the Chevrolet Colorado and its ZR2 Bison variant. In fact, most of the parts that will go into making the ISV are shared with the ZR2 Bison, and most are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components. That includes the dampers, long-travel rear leaf springs, jounce shocks, front upper control arms, steel driveshaft, underbody skid plates, and ball-spline half shafts.

GM fitted under the hood of its vehicle a 2.8-liter diesel engine, controlled via a six-speed automatic transmission. The engine develops 186 horsepower.

“Our ISV entry is a fully-integrated platform that leverages decades of GM’s engineering, manufacturing and quality expertise at scale to provide the most cost-efficient, reliable and effective answer possible to meet and exceed the Army’s demanding requirements,” said in a statement GM Defense President David Albritton.

“We’re very proud of the opportunity to move forward in this competition and continue our development of a vehicle that will enable Army units to move around the battlefield with greater ease and reliability.”

The new ISV is meant to be an evolution of the current Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV), manufactured by Flyer. The products of all three companies will be tested by the end of the year, and then transported to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be looked at by soldiers.

One of the three will then be declared a winner. The U.S. Army plans to purchase 650 of them starting next year.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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