Special Operations units to receive new dune buggy

Polaris’s government and defense business has been awarded a potential seven-year, $109 million contract from the General Services Administration (GSA) to build a light tactical all-terrain vehicle for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

This follow-on contract is for the Polaris MRZR Alpha, a new light tactical vehicle. The seven-year contract has a value of up to $109 million and was awarded on May 29, 2020, following a competitive bid process.

The company was previously awarded a five-year contract worth $83 million from SOCOM in 2015 to produce the MRZR 2 and MRZR 4 lightweight tactical all-terrain vehicles for SOCOM. Polaris’s 2015 MAZR contract was awarded as a “sole-source” contract; the company was apparently the only company SOCOM deemed capable of fulfilling the requirements for this type of vehicle. 

Now, five years later, SOCOM is ready to re-up that contract after Polaris had beat out its competitors for another seven years. This time SOCOM will have Polaris supply as much as $109 million worth of new light tactical vehicles which are named the “Polaris MRZR Alpha.”

The company stated that it will assemble the MRZR Alpha all-terrain vehicle at a factory and R&D center in their Roseau, MN location. Polaris has operated out of Roseau for the past 65 years and has 1,500 employees working there. 

“Winning this LTATV award is well-deserved recognition for the dedication of our Polaris Defense team and the performance of our vehicles, but our real victory is the opportunity to continue serving our military customers. They demand — and deserve — the best engineering and technology, and we consider it an honor to leverage our experience as the world’s largest Powersports company to design and build the vehicles our warfighters need,” Chairman, and CEO of Polaris, Scott Wine, said.

Jed Leonard, Vice President of the company’s government and defense division at Polaris, said that the MRZR Alpha platform will improve SOCOM’s LTATV performance, durability, internal air transportability, and payload requirements.

“Polaris has had the privilege of providing vehicles to USSOCOM since 2005 and we take a great deal of pride in delivering and supporting the current LTATV,” Leonard said. “The Polaris MRZR Alpha supports USSOCOM’s requirements for durability, performance, payload profile, and internal air transportability.”

The new vehicle is the 11th model the company has developed for the military sector in 12 years.

The following is a description from the company’s website:

The LTATV specification – which calls for a 2-passenger and 4-passenger base vehicle, and seven variants or “packages” – results in a revolutionary new capability. Designed on an all-new chassis, the MRZR Alpha is an entirely new breed of light tactical vehicles. Internally transportable vehicles have restrictions on size and weight, but Polaris’ investment and advances in chassis, driveline, suspension, and other technologies have allowed the company to provide a new level of durability, performance, and payload in the MRZR Alpha. Vehicle systems were also designed with near-future innovation in mind, with an architecture ready to accept new technologies and capabilities available within Polaris.

The MRZR Alpha’s versatility is further enhanced by improved exportable power and increased payload. Since their introduction, MRZRs have been outfitted with counter unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), weapons and high-energy laser systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, expeditionary command and control systems, autonomy packages, litters for medical and casualty evacuation and communication equipment.