U.S. Army flies two ISVs by Chinook in one sortie

GM Defense took to social media to show off its Infantry Squad Vehicle’s sling load capability, posting footage of two ISVs being transported simultaneously by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during training at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in March 29, as part of preparations for Operation Pathways 2026.

The exercise involved soldiers from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment “Hellraisers,” 3rd Mobile Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, according to the division’s statement on the training event. A CH-47 Chinook prepared to cut a sling load while transporting both vehicles at Kaneohe Bay, demonstrating the ISV’s ability to be rapidly inserted by air into operational environments where ground approaches are blocked, contested, or simply too slow for the mission timeline.

GM Defense, the manufacturer of the ISV, highlighted the event as a demonstration of a capability it has engineered into the platform from the start.

“Built for speed and flexibility, our Infantry Squad Vehicle is designed to be slingloadable, giving operators the ability to move the platform quickly and efficiently across challenging terrain and operational environments,” GM Defense stated in its announcement of the training. “That capability helps extend the ISV’s reach, supporting the rapid insertion of mobility where and when it is needed most,” the company said.

The ISV is a nine-passenger light tactical vehicle built on the commercial Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 platform, designed to give infantry squads their own organic vehicle mobility rather than relying on heavier platforms. Its commercial-derived architecture keeps the vehicle’s weight low enough to allow helicopter transport, which is the capability the Hawaii training was specifically designed to validate and exercise. Sling load operations with the CH-47 Chinook, which is the U.S. Army’s primary medium-lift helicopter, allow the ISV to be inserted ahead of ground forces, delivered to hilltops or coastal positions inaccessible by road, or repositioned rapidly during a mission without committing the helicopter to a full landing zone evolution.

The CH-47’s payload capacity in sling load configuration allows it to carry two ISVs simultaneously, as the Hawaii exercise demonstrated, which means a single helicopter sortie can deliver a complete squad’s vehicle mobility to a forward position.

The ISV entered Army service in 2020 and has been adopted as the primary light vehicle for infantry brigade combat teams, replacing the older Ground Mobility Vehicle in that role. Its commercial truck underpinnings give it a maintenance and parts supply chain that is far simpler than purpose-built military vehicles, and the Colorado ZR2’s off-road capability translates directly to the kind of terrain operations Army light infantry encounters. The sling load certification means the vehicle doesn’t just drive to its destination — it can be delivered there by air, which in the Pacific theater, where islands and jungle terrain routinely make ground movement either impossible or prohibitively slow, is the difference between a vehicle that is useful across the full range of likely missions and one that sits on the ramp when conditions make driving impractical.

The Chinook’s role in this capability is worth understanding in terms of what it enables for the combined arms team. A CH-47 that can lift two ISVs on a single sortie and deposit them at a forward position gives a light infantry commander vehicle mobility at the front of an operation rather than after ground forces have already closed. That sequencing change is operationally significant — vehicle-mobile infantry can exploit success, pursue a retreating force, or expand a lodgment faster than dismounted infantry, and having the vehicles available from the first hours of an operation rather than waiting for them to drive through the same contested terrain the infantry just cleared is a material advantage.