General Motors has launched a new division aimed at designing and manufacturing vehicles specifically built to market to the Department of Defense. As a matter of fact, GM only developed this subsidiary when they signed a contract with the US army, in 2020, to build new Infantry Squad Vehicle. GM won the contract after competing with designs from the Oshkosh Defense and Flyer Defense team and the SAIC and Polaris team.
General Motors President Steve duMont explains that the new GM Defense International division is “our entity for us to go to market in this global environment.”
GM’s project has been gaining major interest all over the world, particularly after introducing the Infantry Squad Vehicle to the US Army. And while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has not necessarily been a pleasant global event, it has brought to light a potential need for military capabilities like this.
Indeed, duMont connects, “Here in Europe, the past couple of months again have demonstrated the importance of tactical mobility, and so we have a lot of interest from this region as well.”
Many customers who operate in the Middle East have come forward, too, requesting more data on the capabilities of GM Defense. He further notes that militaries based in Africa and the Pacific regions, specifically, could benefit greatly from similar capabilities.
Moving forward, the company intends to build some prototypes in a manner much like that of the way the Army developed its ISV program. Effectively, the military intends to employ a “listen and learn” strategy and then, hopefully, succeed at implementing what each soldier wants.
duMont confides that the company is already building trucks in Canada. In fact, they currently employ approximately 2,600 Canadians. Over the past ten years, GM has spent $6 billion CAD ($5B USD) to build up their capacity. He also expresses that the progress has been impressive, thanks to the ability to leverage General Motors’ global footprint.
