Army to release proposal requests for ISV-Heavy late this year: Official

WASHINGTON — The Army aims to release proposal requests for its heavy variant of the infantry squad vehicle (ISV) this fall, a senior service official told lawmakers, adding that the Army is attempting to field the capability as quickly as possible. 

“The ISV-Heavy is certainly a top priority for us. We are looking to accelerate, and I do believe we are. I think one of the things that’s allowing us to accelerate is the fact that we have established PAEs [program acquisition executives], and we have portfolios now,” Jesse Tolleson, principal deputy of Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. 

“We’re working closely with our requirements community, and that’s allowing us actually to move out quickly with the competition that we’re going to hold for the ISV-Heavy. I believe it’s going to be in fourth quarter of this year, actually, is when we’re going to start to release the RFP,” he continued before the subcommittee on Airland. 

The upcoming request would follow an initial commercial solutions opening in late March, which primed the contractors to further prepare their commercial proposals. A traditional RFP doesn’t always follow a CSO. Rather, a request for commercial solution proposals (RCSP) would typically follow the CSO. The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on if Tolleson was referring to a RFP or RCSP.

While the ISV was originally designed to allow squads to zip around the battlefield with agility, the service is hoping the heavy variant will do more, Tolleson explained. He said there is a “critical capability gap” in the Army’s ability to generate exportable power and onboard power, and so service officials are looking for the ISV-Heavy to essentially serve as a mobile energy source to power command posts, he said. According to the CSO, the Army is seeking vehicles that can provide  60 kW of continuous high-voltage DC power, 15 kW of 28V DC power and 4.8 kW of 120V AC power. 

Apart from the power capability of the ISV-Heavy, the service is also looking for solutions that are commercially available or “non-developmental,” per the CSO from March, to speed up the fielding process. The service is seeking solutions with “minimal modifications from current commercial configurations, with the ability to incorporate future attributes in follow-on increments,” the solicitation added. 

Right now, GM Defense provides the original ISV variant to the service, which is a tricked out, militarized version of a Ford Chevrolet Colorado. Further, GM previously announced it will be offering the militarized version of the Chevrolet Silverado HD 3500 truck for the ISV-Heavy competition.

It’s currently unknown if any other companies are throwing their hats in the ring for the competition. However, Tolleson told lawmakers Tuesday that the Army thinks “there’s going to be some really good competition in that space.” 

Further, the Army is looking to procure approximately 606 heavy ISVs overtime, according to service justification books, with 34 of those to be procured in fiscal 2027. The justification books also state that the service is looking to award the ISV-Heavy contract in September 2027 with the first delivery scheduled for the following January.