You are reading the first of three in-depth stories on the future of US land forces and their new combat vehicles.  In this first piece, Sydney details what the Army wants in its new air-droppable vehicles for the oft-outgunned light forces who are first to the fight. The next two stories will explore the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV),… Keep reading →

The people that built the X-37 unmanned spaceplane and the X-51 Mach five missile now want to bring you an ultra-lightweight truck. Can brains this big think that small? The beautifully named Phantom Badger vehicle looks a little out of place alongside other products of Boeing’s famous Phantom Works division. In fact, Boeing itself looks… Keep reading →

A very small company competing to build the Army’s lightest vehicles just got a big lift from a heavy hitter. “This levels the playing field,” Vyper Adamas president Shane Sterling told me of his firm’s new alliance with Spartan Chassis. “We as a company now have the industrial might behind us to produce our product.” That might… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: “In the next two years,” Army chief of staff Ray Odierno said today, the service could move out on four new combat vehicles and reboot its aging inventory for a new era of war. They range from a parachute-droppable light truck for Airborne soldiers to a scout car, a light tank, and a new… Keep reading →

Can the big guys go fast? In the race to build the Army’s new Ultra-Light Combat Vehicle, General Dynamics is the second biggest competitor, after Boeing, now that aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has dropped out altogether. A traditional defense contractor that builds everything from Army tanks to Navy submarines, GD faces outsiders like commercial offroad… Keep reading →

UPDATE: Lockheed Martin won’t compete Want a pink truck?  “If a colonel says, ‘I want to paint it pink,’ it’ll get painted pink in about five minutes,” boasts Shane Sterling, president of Vyper Adamas. That’s the kind of speed with which smaller companies can move, he says: “We don’t have the levels of bureaucracy that a… Keep reading →

On Monday, truck makers will submit data to the Army on potential candidates for the Ultra-Light Combat Vehicle. ULCV has to be big enough to carry nine fully equipped infantrymen, small enough to sling-load under a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, and tough enough to parachute out the back of a C-130 or C-17. UCLV is… Keep reading →