GM Defense LLC announced Dec. 17 it has started renovations of an existing GM building to support the production of the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), a light and agile all-terrain troop carrier intended to transport a nine-soldier infantry squad. The facility, located in Concord, N.C., will produce ISVs for the U.S. Army as part of a $214.3 million contract awarded to GM Defense in June 2020. GM Defense celebrated the delivery of its first ISVs to the U.S. Army in October of the same year, just 120 days from contract award.

Construction at the 75,000-square-foot facility is expected to continue into early spring, and the production line will begin delivering vehicles in April. As GM Defense ramps to full-rate production, the facility will help to manufacture 649 ISVs and will support the production of up to 2,065 vehicles with additional authorization over eight years. The ISV program is the first major award for GM Defense since the subsidiary was re-established by its parent company in 2017.

“We have tremendous momentum behind our ISV win, featuring a first-of-its-kind tactical wheeled vehicle that gives our soldiers speed, durability, and performance to enhance mission success,” said Tim Herrick, interim president of GM Defense. “GM Defense is responsible for the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the ISV. This facility will enable us to meet our customer’s timeline for delivery while continuing our journey to bring commercial technologies and transformative mobility solutions to the defense market.”

The ISV is based off the 2020 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 midsize truck architecture and leverages 90% commercial-off-the-shelf parts, including Chevrolet Performance race components. The 5,000-pound ISV was engineered to fulfill military requirements and designed to provide rapid ground mobility. This expeditionary vehicle is light enough to be sling loaded from a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter and compact enough to fit inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter for air transportability. The ISV’s innovative Rollover Protection System (ROPS) will provide agile transportability on any battleground.

The GM Defense production facility is located near North Carolina-based Hendrick Motorsports, which brings its extensive experience developing race cars in high-load, high-risk environments, to support defense applications. Hendrick Motorsports is responsible for providing the chrome-moly steel exoskeleton of the vehicle frame, including the ISV ROPS system.

GM Defense also has a teaming agreement with Ricardo Defense, which will lead the integrated product support for the ISV, including technical manual development, new equipment training, provisioning, total package fielding, and field service support.