Army defends new squad vehicle after blistering combat review - Breaking Defense

After a scathing Pentagon report dubbed the US Army’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle “not operationally effective” for combat missions against near-peer threats, the program office responsible is defending the multi-million dollar program, saying that’s not what it’s meant to do in the first place.

“The ISV is not designed to defeat or counter specific threats nor is it intended to operate as a combat fighting platform,” Steve Herrick, product lead for ground mobility vehicles with the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support, told Breaking Defense in a statement Wednesday. “The primary role of the ISV is as a troop carrier to provide ground mobility to designated Infantry rifles squads reducing their need to cover large areas of terrain on foot.”

Herrick’s statement came several days after the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation published a harsh review of the ISV in its annual report, listing several vehicle shortcomings ahead of the program’s full-rate production decision in May — many related to combat scenarios.