GM Is Building A Chinook-Friendly, Colorado ZR2-Based Troop Carrier

Although it might not look that way, what you’re looking at here is a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. Well, kind of - it’s actually General Motors’ new ‘Infantry Squad Vehicle’ (ISV), of which the auto giant will be building 2065 as part of a new $214 million contract with the US Army.

The Colorado pick-up’s architecture is retained, and 90 per cent of the ISV’s parts are of the bog-standard, off-the-shelf commercial variety. This makes the ISV cheaper to build, and easier to maintain.

Included in that 90 per cent is a set of Dynamic Suspension Spool Valve damper from Multimatic, the Canadian firm responsible for building the Ford GT. Just in case you wanted a tenuous supercar link. The dampers have been brutally tested on Colorado ZR2s prepped for the Best in Desert race series, so they should be up for the task of bouncing over rough terrain while carrying a full complement of troops.

On that subject, the ISV can carry a total of nine people plus their gear, but what’s perhaps more interesting is what can carry the ISV. It’s light enough to be lifted by a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter and small enough to fit inside a CH-47 Chinook.

In keeping with the whole easy to build, simple to maintain ethos, propulsion comes from a very ordinary 2.8-litre Duramax turbo diesel engine. It provides 184bhp and drives the wheels via a six-speed automatic gearbox.

We should imagine this will just be the start for the ISV - no doubt there’ll eventually be myriad variants with different explodey appendages and distinct body configurations. Its involvement in a thoroughly implausible future Fast and Furious scene is also surely a given.