Military

Meet the Army's New Airborne Trucks

The U.S. Army is about to conduct a drive off among three competing trucks, all aiming to become the service's newest ride for paratroopers. The Infantry Squad Vehicle is a high speed, lightly armored truck that will jump with airborne troops out of airplanes and allow soldiers to quickly move off the drop zone.

The U.S. Army has more than a division’s worth of paratroopers, about five brigades in all. Paratroopers are a forced-entry tool, capable of dropping from airplanes and then moving out to secure objectives. On D-Day, for example, the 101st and 82and Airborne Divisions dropped behind enemy lines to secure bridges and key road junctions that invaders coming over the beach would need to press the attack.

Modern warfare is fast moving, with most troops riding in tanks or infantry fighting vehicles. Not so with paratroopers, who are still limited to the speed they can walk. The new infantry squad vehicle seeks to change things, giving paratroopers newfound mobility.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) is essentially a passenger-carrying truck that can drop out the back of an airplane. Once on the ground, a nine man squad of paratroopers will pile themselves and their equipment in the back and then quickly move out toward their objective. The ISV will allow an airborne assault force to choose a drop zone farther from enemy defenses but still quickly converge on a bridge, highway interchange, or enemy airport. The ISV prioritizes speed over armored protection, an easy choice to make since a heavy armored vehicle can’t be airdropped anyway.