Special ops forces fuel demand for ultralight vehicles.

• Author: Harper, Jon

When it comes to ground vehicles, U.S. Special Operations Command is embracing the notion that lighter is better. SOCOM wants platforms that can traverse difficult terrain and deliver special operations forces to their targets quickly, sacrificing armor protection for greater mobility.

Toward that end, the command will jettison much of its heavy fleet, according to officials.

"We're basically on a mission to divest ourselves of most of those vehicles," said Duke Dunnigan, deputy program manager of the family of special operations vehicles at SOCOM. "We're looking at more ultralight and depending more on speed and agility versus armoring up so much that the suspensions don't last long and I can't negotiate the terrain."

The command has about 3,000 vehicles in its inventory. By the middle of next year, the number of mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles and their off-road variant, the M-ATV, will drop from 519 to 280. Those remaining in the fleet will be reconditioned through 2016, according to Dunnigan.

Armor is also being removed from other vehicles at Letter-kenny Army Depot in Pennsylvania.

"We're taking all our up-armored heavy Humvees and we're basically sending them through the line and they're coming out ultralight vehicles," Dunnigan said at this year's Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida.

SOCOM sees less need for heavily armored vehicles like the MRAP--perhaps the most iconic vehicle of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars--now that America's big post-9/11 counterinsurgency campaigns have come to a close.

"When you're in a long-term engagement and you've got a big footprint like we had ... it's a lot easier for an enemy to predict [your movements] and do those" improvised explosive device attacks, Dunnigan said. To improve operability in places where "the IED threats aren't as heavy," SOCOM intends to rebalance its portfolio, he said.

In the coming years, the command will be procuring ultralight vehicles of varying sizes, ranges and payload capabilities to meet different mission requirements.

"What's best for us is to go out and ... find those industry commercial-off-the-shelf systems that we can modify to avoid to the best of our ability a lot of R&D that would be required to develop a vehicle from the ground up," Dunnigan said.

In March, SOCOM announced that it intends to negotiate and award a sole-source contract to Polaris to purchase 2,050 MRZR light tactical all-terrain vehicles.

Polaris has been under a multi-year contract with SOCOM for the vehicles since 2013, according to Mark McCormick, the company's director...