Like The Off-Road Pickup It’s Based On, GM Defense’s Infantry Squad Vehicle Is Light And Fast. It Could Be An Example For Army Acquisition.

On an improvised off-road course in Concord, North Carolina, I recently had the chance to drive the Army’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), built by GM Defense. Compared with the Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) and even the Army Humvees I’ve wheeled, the ISV is a breeze to drive, quick and agile.

Speed and agility yield dividends in the scout/light transport role the nine-passenger ISV will perform, initially with the 89th Airborne Division. The ISV’s speed-to-production has drawn attention as well.

From clinching the $214 million contract to build 649 ISVs for the Army in June 2020, it took GM Defense just 120 days to deliver the first production Infantry Squad Vehicle. The company also established a new 75,000-square-foot facility production facility for the ISV in Concord in three months, cranking out several vehicles per week starting in April.

GM Defense executives cite the capability of its parent, General Motors

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, as a key factor in its speed to market, engineering depth and off-the-shelf component supply/support.

Newly minted GM Defense President Steve duMont, a former Army Apache helicopter pilot and Raytheon executive, told me that the firm’s commercial-industrial ties are what the Pentagon needs more of.

“I think the Department of Defense needs companies that can bring commercial reach-back. The fact that we can produce a [new] vehicle from contract award to delivery in 120 days is amazing to me. I started in this industry 20 years ago and one of the first programs I was involved in was cut after 20 years of development. It was no longer relevant.”

A history of similar experiences explain why the Army is looking at new approaches. Recently, the service tossed its traditional acquisition scheme for the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) program – which seeks to replace the M-2 Bradley – after its first supplier competition ended with only one bid sample from General Dynamics

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Land Systems in October 2019.

The revamped OMFV has attracted proposals from non-traditional suppliers like Florida-based Point Blank Enterprises and Michigan-based Mettle Ops that bring focused design expertise which they look to pair with established manufacturers.

Even long-time military vehicle supplier, Oshkosh Defense is teaming with South Korean armored troop carrier maker Hanwha Defense on OMFV to speed an offering, an alliance which would have seemed unlikely a decade ago.

Army spokesman Matthew C. Ociepka stresses that the service’s focus on “working with industry to streamline our modernization process starts with two key pillars – competition and fairness.”

“Companies, both traditional and non-traditional vendors, that demonstrate the ability to validate concepts and deliver efficiently and effectively to meet our modernization requirements are essential to accomplish this.”

GM Defense appears well-matched with the Army’s desire for quick concept validation and delivery. The company was re-established as a General Motors subsidiary in 2017, 14 years after GM sold its previous defense unit to General Dynamics.

The new GM Defense saw an opportunity to plug an existing, well-developed GM platform into the Army’s requirement for a light troop transport at a reasonable price.

“We saw they were looking at a nine-passenger off-road vehicle that was under 5,000 pounds curb weight but could carry 3,200 pounds, fit inside a helicopter, or be able to be sling-loaded,” GM Defense Chief Engineer, Mark Dickens remembered. “I had just finished launching the ZR2 … all the content was just there.”

The Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, is the off-road racing-inspired performance version of Chevy’s midsize Colorado pickup. By deleting the truck’s body, adding a sophisticated roll structure with nine seats and making other modifications, GM Defense came up with a concept that could be quickly realized.

About 90% of the ISV’s parts including the chassis, engine, drivetrain, electronic locking differentials, transfer case, suspension, and more are off-the-shelf components that one could walk into a Chevy dealership and buy. That commonality accelerated GM Defense’s ISV production ramp-up. It also yields supply-chain benefits founded on General Motors economies of scale and global supply network.

These can be brought to bear at GM Defense’s new production facility. Rather than the heavy industrial layout common to defense equipment manufacturers, the facility looks spare, streamlined and adaptable. Production engineers at the Concord plant characterize it as “flexible manufacturing”, scalable to variable volume and product output.

The ISV assembly line integrates advanced software and Bluetooth-enabled tools with a small, non-unionized workforce of craftsmen-like “production technicians.” They currently turn out a handful of ISVs per week (numbers are expected to go up) with components from GM and other partners. The arrangement is obviously tilted to efficiency but requires awareness which non-traditional defense suppliers often lack.

Unlike in the defense space, automotive equipment suppliers are not subject to increasing DoD supply chain scrutiny. GM Defense production facility IT director, Wendy Melton, says the company is aware of this and attuned to the Pentagon’s Cyber Security Maturity Model Certification framework, standards the Defense Department makes sure GM Defense and its other suppliers are apprised of.

Among those suppliers is Concord neighbor and legendary NASCAR racing team Hendrick Motorsports. With over 30 years of building low-volume precision tube-frame chassis and roll cages for its race cars, Hendrick builds the exoskeleton that surrounds the ISV chassis and soldier occupants.

“With the ISV chassis being chrome-moly steel and requiring custom fabrication, GM Defense’ requirements just aligned with our capabilities,” says Hendrick Motorsports president, Marshall Carlson. He adds that where Hendrick sees opportunities in the defense market, it plans to aggressively pursue them, particularly with GM Defense.

GM Defense’s own relative newness, its flexibility, and its partner relationships are the things its new president is looking to capitalize on, generating new products fast.

“The model that we’ve demonstrated with ISV is something that we’re going to continue to drive – to get capability in the hands of the warfighter sooner. That’s what we need as a country,” he says.

GM Defense will next attempt to advance the model with its own participation in a JLTV offering. That will surely be a big lift.

Though DoD has ordered some 17,000 JLTVs with over 7,500 delivered to the services so far, the Army is reopening the JLTV contract to new bidders in 2022. Nearly three times as heavy as the un-armored ISV, the JLTV incorporates sophisticated anti-blast technology as well as weapons and communications subsystems that GM Defense has little to no experience with.

The company has been in discussions with potential partners and while it could act as a prime integrator, it will likely look for a teaming role for JLTV. The same sort of partnership could apply to OMFV which GM Defense’s new president says will be another target for the company.

DuMont previously worked on OMFV with Raytheon, which teamed with Rheinmettal and Textron

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to offer a vehicle for the aborted 2019 competition. An OMFV alliance would afford GM Defense the same luxury as its declared competitors. It won’t have to produce a physical prototype, just a virtual design.

That could allow the company to showcase its virtual design capability underpinned by GM’s expertise. The combination would revisit the rapid ISV prototype experience “using the most modern technology and the big investment that General Motors is making in battery power for things like the silent watch capability [electric weapon systems power] that’s required for OMFV,” duMont says.

An electric powertrain is something the Army is considering for future ISVs and GM Defense has already produced a concept EV variant of the ISV using a Chevrolet Volt battery-electric motor. It drives similarly to the diesel-powered ISVs the company is already producing.

The Army and other services have a long way to go in proving the utility and feasibility of battlefield EVs. But GM Defense’s access to General Motors’ experience with battery electric mobility suggests the former could ultimately enjoy steady business as an electric powertrain supplier for a variety of military ground vehicles and prime integrators.

“It’s something we’re looking closely at,” duMont acknowledges, “how do we properly grow to deliver value across defense?”

Whether as a prime or as a supplier, GM Defense could exemplify the kind of diversified, mid-size vendor that DoD is looking for – fast and flexible with commercial roots.

The ISV embodies such traits, explaining its appeal to the Army soldiers who evaluated it last year. My experience showed it drives like a pickup, not a ponderous armored vehicle. As a newer, leaner company, GM Defense could convincingly make the same analogy.