Army taps three companies to take ISVs unmanned

WASHINGTON — Three companies have secured prototype contracts with the US Army to test the viability of turning Infantry Support Vehicles (ISVs) into autonomous vehicles, the service announced today.

“This effort will serve as an opportunity for the Army to assess the reliability of commercial autonomy and their ability to deliver real operational value to soldiers in the field,” Col. Ken Bernier, the project manager for Future Battle Platforms, said in a LinkedIn post. 

Under a new Unmanned Systems (UxS) autonomy initiative, the trio — Forterra, Overland AI and Scout AI – received a total of $15.5 million to “rapidly integrate” their commercial autonomy solution onto existing ISVs and deliver prototypes to Army soldiers for demonstration and evaluation in May 2026.

“We are looking forward to seeing how our industry partner’s autonomy solutions perform on vehicles while performing relevant military missions,” said Bernier, “We remain committed to bringing the best technologies to our warfighters and shaping the future of autonomous mobility for our Army at an unprecedented speed.”

Those demonstrations, the Army office wrote, will be used to help leaders decide on a path forward for autonomous and unmanned ground systems, an area the service has struggled with for decades.

Stephanie Bonk, the co-founder and president of Overland AI, Breaking Defense that her company will be integrating its autonomy stack that’s called Overdrive into the ISVs, along with the hardware component called Spark.

Then, the upgraded ISVs from Overland will be bound for soldiers inside the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Polk for testing over a six-month period, which will include a Combat Training Center rotation.

“We really see this as a springboard for ground autonomy in the Army,” Bonk told Breaking Defense on Wednesday. “This is going to really define where the Army is going in the future, whether it continues to be ISVs or some other vehicle.”

Collin Otis, Scout AI’s co-founder and chief technology officer, called today’s announcement is “a super positive” step for the service as it goes after next-generation AI systems, alongside legacy obstacle avoidance systems.

“For us, it’s been super positive to see them rapidly onboarding that technology,” he added. “It’s obviously a lot lower cost, it’s a lot higher capability and it is already at rate in terms of production and manufacturing.

In a similar vein, Forterra’s Vice President for Defense Business Development Pat Acox said the company is honored to be moving ahead with UxS.

“Our job is straightforward: build systems that work in the field and make the soldier’s mission easier, not harder,” he wrote in a short statement.