GM Defense awarded lucrative U.S. Army contract

GM Defense, a unit of General Motors, has been awarded a U.S. Army contract worth up to $214.3 million to build a fleet of high-performance Infantry Squad Vehicles.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
GM	GENERAL MOTORS CO.	55.59	+0.09	+0.16%

The nine-passenger trucks are based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickup and are designed to be carried under UH-60 Blackhawk or inside CH-47 Chinook helicopters for rapid deployment.

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The contract is the largest won by the General Motors division, which was re-established as a standalone business unit in 2017. An order for 639 of the trucks has been confirmed, while the full amount of the contract will cover the production of 1,070 trucks if it is implemented and could be expanded to 2,065 with additional allocations.

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The GM/Ricardo project was chosen over submissions from Oshkosh/Flyer Defense and SAIC/Polaris and shares 90 percent if its off-the-shelf parts with consumer vehicles.

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Along with the Infantry Squad Vehicle, GM Defense has shown concepts for several electric vehicles that use hydrogen fuel cells in place of large battery packs, including the multi-functional SURUS autonomous platform.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE GM DEFENSE INFANTRY SQUAD VEHICLE FROM FOX NEWS AUTOS