The US Army has selected three industry teams to develop prototypes for the service’s infantry squad vehicle (ISV) competition. 

The $1 million contract will ultimately lead to the army having a new ISV in service in 2020, it says, having chosen three teams to build their respective prototypes, namely Oshkosh Defense/Flyer, GM Defense, and SAIC/Polaris. 

Delivery date of the prototype for each team is 13 November to Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland for initial assessment, where the vehicles will have to show that they will be able to transport a nine-soldier infantry squad along with associated equipment, and will comfortably manoeuvre up to 5,000lb. 

"The modernised vehicles will provide enhanced tactical mobility for an infantry brigade combat team to move quickly around the battlefield," Steven Herrick, ground mobility vehicle product lead for the US Army Program Executive Office Combat Service & Combat Service Support, said, noting that the vehicles will be able to reposition operations to ‘provide commanders greater freedom of movement and action’. 

‘Upon their arrival at the Maryland proving ground, all designs will compete in several performance, operational, and characteristics tests. Evaluations are scheduled to run through December,’ Herrick added.

Following their early trials, the vehicles will be moved to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where they will undergo a second round of testing, and once there, they will be subject to operational assessments through a series of tests on how effective the prototypes work for soldiers. 

‘The army plans to downselect to one company for production in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020,’ Herrick noted. 

‘This selection will be based largely on soldier input and [in] response to a formal request for proposal for production.’

The army started the process of procuring the new ISV in September 2018, and in February 2019 the service approved a procurement plan for the purchase of 649 vehicles.