It might look like a flatbed ute that had the cabin completely lopped off when it tried to go under an incredibly low bridge, but the new GM UGV is anything but an exercise in novelty. Based on a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, the brand-new concept has been designed for deadly serious work like rushing injured soldiers away from the battlefield.

The Unmanned Ground Vehicle has just been unveiled by GM Defense, a subsidiary of General Motors, with the aim of supporting “silent logistics and casualty evacuation” at a time when the paramount importance of autonomous equipment is being highlighted by the war in Ukraine.  

2

The UGV is built using the Silverado 3500HD as a starting point, and what’s left of the bodywork features the same styling. The concept takes the dual-rear-wheel skateboard architecture from the pickup and strips it right down to remove any trace of human control, instead opting for a remote drive-by-wire system made by Scout AI.

The Silverado usually runs either a 6.6-litre petrol or turbo-diesel V8, but that would shatter the silence the UGV needs to cover its tracks while it’s being deployed. Instead, the concept is fitted with a 100kWh battery, and its payload is rated at 8000 pounds, or just over 3600kg.

When it went on display at GM Defense’s stand at the US Army’s biggest trade show, the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exhibition, the UGV was paired with a counter-drone laser weapon and drone-detection sensor, but they are likely for self-defence as the vehicle is not designed to engage in combat.

2

GMD plans to have demonstrator models of the concept ready for Army testing by June next year, and it’s far from the only military application that’s heavily based on an existing mass-market vehicle.

The GMD Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV, pictured above) and its bulkier sibling, the ISV Heavy, are built on the platform used in the Chevy Colorado ZR2 pickup, and Ford has built a six-wheel prototype of its popular Ranger Super Duty in a bid to win a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence.