U.S. Army expands ultra-light vehicle buy 18-fold to 11,582

The U.S. Army has increased its procurement objective for the Infantry Squad Vehicle to 11,582 vehicles, an 18-fold jump from the program’s original 649-vehicle target, according to Jacqueline Hames of the Army Acquisition Support Center.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle is an ultra-light tactical vehicle that carries nine passengers along with their equipment. The Army launched the program in 2019 to fill a gap it identified between the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and the Humvee, both of which the service found too heavy for some battlefield tasks.

The procurement objective has climbed in stages since the program began. It rose to 900 vehicles in February 2021, then increased twice more to reach 2,593. In April 2025, the Army approved a utility variant of the vehicle and raised the combined objective to 5,733 across both variants. The Army set the current objective, 11,582 vehicles, in February 2026.

“This led to an explosive growth driven entirely by operational demand,” said Susan Fung, deputy project manager for the mobile brigade combat team within Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maneuver Ground.

“In February of 2026, the Army established the current position objective and procurement objective at 11,582 vehicles,” Fung said. “That shows you the increased objective based on soldier demand, and that’s really equivalent to about an 18-fold increase from the original requirement. Not because of requirements creep, but really because soldiers validated the capability in the combat training environments and demanded more.”

The Army built the growth on continuous soldier feedback gathered through its Transformation in Contact program, which tests emerging equipment with soldiers in operational settings. Fung said the team deliberately relied on commercial products and iterative testing rather than the Army’s traditional acquisition path.

“We are extremely proud of this program and what we’ve been able to achieve in a short period of time,” Fung said. “In this high-stakes environment of modern warfare, playing it completely safe is often the most dangerous thing a leader can do for decades.”

John Hufstedler, product director for ground mobility vehicles at Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maneuver Ground, said the team resisted adding capabilities beyond the vehicle’s core mission during development.

“Early on, the ISV succeeded by staying locked-in. A few key requirements were transportability, [but] mobility and payload and resisting requirements creep,” Hufstedler said.

“Anytime somebody wanted to add a radio with encrypted keys or hang another piece of encrypted equipment off the platform, leadership just didn’t buy into it. And that allowed the vehicle to stay focused and true to its mission, so we didn’t have to leave a soldier back with the vehicle. All nine could go execute the mission and objective,” he said.

Standard defense acquisition, which allows custom military specifications, extensive government testing and sequential milestone gates, typically takes four to 10 years and often results in cost overruns and technological obsolescence, according to Hufstedler. The Infantry Squad Vehicle program instead used commercial off-the-shelf components with minimal military modification, delivering the first equipped unit within 24 months, he said.

“With the ISV program, we prove[d] that calculated risk works,” Hufstedler said. “We keep going back to commerciality. I think that has helped us a lot: trusting our soldiers’ judgment and moving at the speed of relevance. I think we’ve delivered that capability.”

The Army is now developing a heavy variant of the Infantry Squad Vehicle, which will include enhanced onboard power generation and storage capacity to support next-generation command and control equipment, according to Fung.