Soldiers from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division operates an Infantry Squad Vehicle during a training rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., on June 12, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Army Spc. Momadou Ndiaye did not miss the dark, cramped, bumpy ride in the back of an M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle as his infantry squad streaked across the jagged Mojave Desert proving grounds at the Army’s National Training Center.
Ndiaye, a dismounted infantryman assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, spent this month on Fort Irwin’s training grounds operating from an Infantry Squad Vehicle as his brigade conducted a major training rotation focused on integrating new technology and tactics into the heavy formation.
It marked the first time the Army had tested attaching the open-air, truck-like ISVs to an armored brigade known best for the firepower and protection its Bradleys and M1 Abrams tanks bring to the battlefield.
“We’ve been able to go all the way to the top of that mountain, to the very top edge,” Ndiaye said, pointing toward a toothy peak high over the valley where he and his squad were resting June 12 after three days of fighting Fort Irwin’s opposing force. “We’d never do that in a Brad. Driving [the ISV] up there — it saved us a lot of time [and] energy to move up over the mountain, and we can really push it farther, and then we can kind of hide it behind the mountain and dismount from there and operate.”
The brigade’s commander, Col. Alex Perez-Cruz, approached Army leadership about adding some of the small, unarmored troop-movers to his formation ahead of the NTC rotation to add speed and stealth for his cavalry scouts and dismounted infantrymen who operate at or beyond the front lines.
The Fort Stewart, Ga.-based brigade is one of the Army’s heavy units charged under the service’s Transformation in Contact, or TiC, program with experimentating to shape the service’s future ability to fight a similarly equipped adversary, such as China or Russia.
The General Motors-built Infantry Squad Vehicle is based on a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 midsize truck, modified to carry a nine-soldier squad and all their gear. It is quiet, fuel-efficient and small enough to be loaded into a Chinook helicopter and light enough to be sling-loaded under a Black Hawk, according to GM.
The Army began fielding the ISV in 2020 and ordered full-rate production of the truck in 2023 with the intention of outfitting all its light infantry forces with the trucks.
Perez-Cruz had some reservations about how to employ the ISVs, but his orders were to move troops into position as quickly as possible to find and target the enemy at the start of the brigade’s battle. He had his ISV-based troops load three days of supplies — food, water, fuel, electric power, ammunition and all their fighting gear — on the trucks, and under the cover of darkness, dart across the desert toward high ground where he expected to be able to locate enemy positions.
“I took the risk to say, ‘OK, we’re going to try to use them fast,’ ” Perez-Cruz said. “We’re going to get there quickly, we’re going to hide and then I wanted them to start sensing immediately.”
The ISV-based soldiers dashed as far as 19 miles across the desert and quickly employed drones and electromagnetic warfare capabilities in a hunter-killer strategy to find enemy targets for the brigade’s artillery, kamikaze drones and its Bradleys and tanks to strike.
Soldiers from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division eat a meal in and around their Infantry Squad Vehicle during a lull in fighting during a training rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., on June 12, 2026. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
On a battlefield dominated by new technology — including drones, satellite imagery and electromagnetic warfare that can both jam communications and locate troops using electronics — it is harder to hide and nearly impossible to mass large formations of armor forces. Commanders must innovate to get troops forward without tipping off the enemy, said Lt. Col. J.P. Steadman, who commands 2nd Brigade’s 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment.
The small footprint and electronic signature of the ISV gave Steadman’s squadron the ability to move farther than it could in the Bradleys it typically uses to insert dismounted troops, he said.
“Getting them [12.5 miles] deep in this fight, I would never dream of doing that with a Bradley,” Steadman said. “And I would never be able to do that with a Bradley, because the enemy would see that and kill that in a heartbeat.”
The ISVs trade the Bradley’s protective armor for nimbleness and stealth, which Army leaders believe would be more important in a fight against China or Russia. The platform has received high marks from leaders in the light infantry world, but it has also faced criticism for being unarmored.
The Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation has repeatedly raised concerns that without ballistic protection an “ISV-equipped unit is susceptible to enemy threats and actions.” Army officials have argued the ISV is only a transport and not a fighting vehicle. Soldiers are meant to dismount the ISV and fight or move to their target on foot, they have said.
Army leaders are so impressed with the ISV that they plan to expand the line with two new versions — a smaller, five-seat truck designated the ISV-U expected to be fielded next year and later a hybrid-electric ISV-Heavy model based on a Chevrolet Silverado 3500 HD ZR2, according to the service.
Ndiaye and other soldiers working from ISVs at NTC dismissed concerns about the lack of armor and said they were impressed with the trucks. Ndiaye labeled the ISV “the best vehicle for dismount so far.”
Sgt. Carson Snyder, a sniper with the brigade who spent the rotation driving an ISV, said it was “a lot of fun to drive.”
“We’ve been able to scale a lot of different terrain, hit a lot of different bumps, and handle it smoothly,” Snyder said. “It’s a lot more enjoyable than riding in the back of a Brad.”
Lt. Col. Sam Kriegler, who commands 2nd Brigade’s 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, said he was convinced of the ISV’s usefulness in an armor unit.
But it is not immediately clear if the unit will keep the trucks. Army leaders will study the NTC rotation and consider how adding a new vehicle affects the brigade’s manpower and the service’s warfighting doctrine.
“I think now we need to highlight that we like the ISVs,” Kriegler said. “Then it’s: How many do we need? What does that manning look like? … I think we’ve shown they are useful for us. I hope we keep them.”
An Army Infantry Squad Vehicle from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division is pictured June 12, 2026, at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., on June 12, 2026. It marked the first time a heavy Army brigade employed the small, light trucks in training. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
