GM Defense, a division of General Motors providing military products, showcased Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickup-based Infantry Squad Vehicle at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference.

The new vehicle is based on the Chevrolet Colorado midsize truck architecture and its ZR2 and ZR2 Bison variants. Supplemented with both custom and commercially available parts, the underlying architecture has been proven under duress by Chevy Performance engineering over more than 10,000 miles of punishing off-road development and desert racing in the Best in the Desert Racing series.

Applied to ISV, the Colorado’s architecture undergirds an occupant and cargo superstructure powered by a 186-horsepower, 2.8L diesel powerplant and six-speed automatic transmission. Some 70 percent of ISV parts are provent commercial-off-the-shelf components.

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To meet Army requirements, the ISV must be light enough to be sling-loaded from a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, compact enough to fit inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter and versatile enough to carry up to nine soldiers and all of their gear at highway speeds, both on pavement and off-road under extreme conditions. The Army plans to acquire approximately 650 ISVs beginning as soon as 2020.

GM’s solution includes high-performance parts developed and proven by Chevy Performance engineering such as long-travel Multimatic DSSV dampers, long-travel rear leaf springs, jounce shocks, front upper control arms, steel driveshaft, underbody skid plates and ball-spline half shafts.

“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 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.”

ISV’s Multimatic Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers use precision spool valve technology for maximum predictability, accuracy and repeatability, minimizing jolts to passengers and delivering the ultimate in wheel and vehicle control. Underbody skid plates protect the front suspension, engine, transfer case, fuel tank, rear differential and rear shock mount. Advanced software and calibration ensure optimal performance for the engine, transmission, transfer case, locking front and rear differentials and electronically assisted power steering.