GM Defense has opened a new factory in Concord, North Carolina, to manufacture the US Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) and unveiled an all-electric version of the truck to show the service near-term possibilities, company officials told Janes on 4 May.
The company is under contract to produce the army’s new air-droppable vehicle, which can ferry nine soldiers and their equipment around on the battlefield.
At the end of February, GM Defense stopped ISV production at the company’s facility in Milford, Michigan, and moved the equipment to the Concord facility, “plugged it back in”, and began producing the vehicles at the new location in April, according to Joe Moraschinelli, senior manager for the advanced build engineering team.
As of early May, the company had produced 33 ISVs for the army, with 27 manufactured at the Milford facility and the remaining six at the new Concord site, he said. It is now planning to build nine vehicles per month at the Concord facility instead of the previously anticipated 14 ISVs per month, a reduced output after the army lowered the monthly task order for several reasons including budget constraints, Moraschinelli said. However, the company expects that the number will be bumped back up.
”We’re actually ready to ramp up [production] when they’re ready to increase their requirements,” Moraschinelli said.
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