GM Defense has unveiled an unmanned truck concept based on the Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD, with functional trials targeted for next year. The vehicle, called the Unmanned Ground Vehicle or UGV, appeared at the Association of the United States Army's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The concept strips out the cab entirely, which GM frames as a weight saving, and is designed to haul supplies, evacuate casualties or, per the company, even engage drones. It runs on the Silverado 3500HD dual-rear-wheel skateboard architecture.
Combustion engine, battery backup
Despite the battery capacity and the emphasis on quiet operation, this is not an electric truck. General Motors told Carscoops the drivetrain is an internal combustion engine connected to a power take-off unit, which charges the rechargeable energy storage system. That battery is used for export power, meaning it can run external equipment without the engine.
The arrangement is aimed at military theatres where silence matters: the battery can support quiet logistics and casualty evacuation, while the engine keeps the truck moving and topped up. The catch, as the source notes, is that the truck still has to reach its position without being heard in the first place.
DefenseDaily figures cited by Carscoops put payload at 8,000 pounds with 102 kWh of onboard energy. Skipping the cab is what makes those numbers work, since a cabin would cut both carrying capacity and range.
Existing military work gives GM a head start
GM Defense is not starting from scratch. The company already builds vehicles for the military, and president Steve DuMont said the division does not begin with a blank sheet of paper. That matters because the Army reportedly changed one requirement from 649 units to around 12,000, a scale only an established supply chain could absorb.
Under what GM described as close collaboration with the customer, the company developed the Infantry Squad Vehicle Utility Prototype, delivered seven units and engineered a five-soldier variant expected to serve about 39 active-duty brigades.
What happens next
GM Defense hopes to test the UGV next year. Whether the hardware can realistically take on the anti-drone role the company floats is, as the source puts it, debatable. No production timeline, contract award or unit price has been announced.
For GM, the UGV is another sign the defense arm is scaling up fast, leaning on civilian Silverado components to move at the speed the Army's shifting requirements demand.
