U.S. Special Forces will soon be riding into battle in a race-bred truck.
The Polaris DAGOR is a compact military machine that uses a trophy truck-style suspension for extreme off-road capability and was developed in partnership with Roush Industries of NASCAR fame.
The purpose-built military machine is about the size of a four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, but can fit up to nine warfighters onboard: four in the cabin, four in the bed, and a roof gunner positioned in a sling seat suspended from the roll cage.
The 4,500-pound vehicle is powered by a diesel engine of unspecified origin, has a range of 500 miles and can haul up to 3,250 pounds. It's long-travel suspension features Fox off-road shocks.
Designed to meet the specifications of the U.S. Armed Forces’ new Ultra Light Combat Vehicle class, the DAGOR is small enough that you can fit one inside of a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter, two in a CH-47 Chinook, or strap one to the bottom of a Black Hawk.
It's the latest in a growing lineup of small military vehicles from Polaris, that includes the Sportsman MV 850 LE, with its innovative flat-proof "airless" tires:
A Polaris spokesperson told FoxNews.com that the DAGOR is already in production, and the first units are scheduled for delivery this fall.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the price is $149,000 per truck, and has also been sold to a military force in the Asia-Pacific region. Sorry, 4x4 fans, but a civilian version is not in the cards...yet.
The DAGOR will make its public debut at the 2014 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting, in Washington, D.C on October 13th.
As for the name, Polaris won't say what it means, except that it's not an acronym, but it does happen to the word for “battle” in the Elvish language of Sindarin used in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
The difference being that the DAGOR and the threats it will face are very real.