Italy Selects 658 More SMR6 Trucks To Boost Mobility For Next-Generation Brigade Operations.

Italy has ordered 658 additional SMR6 tactical logistics trucks from IDV, expanding its 2024 procurement and pushing total deliveries to 2,111 vehicles through 2039. The move strengthens Italy’s heavy brigade logistics and improves its ability to sustain NATO operations in high-demand theaters.

According to Iveco Group, on 1 December 2025, IDV will deliver 658 additional tactical logistic trucks to the Italian Army, expanding the original 2024 contract for 1,453 vehicles and bringing the total fleet to 2,111 trucks with deliveries running through 2039. The extension covers not only vehicles but also maintenance and in-service support for the entire fleet, consolidating IDV’s role as the core supplier of Italian land logistics. The order will establish a standardized logistics fleet built for protected convoy operations, high payload transport, and rapid support to new long-range fires and air defense systems entering service later this decade.
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IDV's SMR6 next-generation tactical truck family provides high payload capacity, enhanced off-road mobility, deep fording capability, and options for armored cabs, supporting missions from troop and cargo transport to tanker, container carrier, and recovery roles across Italy's modernized logistics fleet (Picture source: IDV).

The new trucks are based on IDV’s SMR6 Standard Military Range, a next-generation family derived from the Modular Military Range architecture and built on the latest Astra HD9 chassis. SMR6 offers 4x4, 6x6, 8x8, and 10x10 configurations with six-cylinder diesel engines in the 350 to 700 horsepower class, giving payload margins suited to heavy containers, fuel, and water modules, and recovery equipment. The underlying modular range is designed for best-in-class tactical mobility with central tire inflation, run-flat tyres, deep fording capability of roughly 1.5 meters, and air transportability on C-130 and A400M aircraft, allowing the same chassis to support both national and expeditionary missions. Cab options include tactical cabs with ballistic and mine protection, NBC filtration and roof hatches, reflecting lessons from ACTL operations in asymmetric environments.

The SMR6 fleet will become the backbone of Italy’s maneuver support and theater logistics. The contract covers multiple mission kits, ranging from troop and pallet transport to water and fuel tankers, container carriers, heavy recovery and towing systems, all built around a common driveline and cab family. These trucks will move ammunition, fuel, and combat service support elements for new capabilities such as HIMARS rocket artillery, RCH 155 wheeled howitzers, Skynex air defense batteries, and future Panther KF51-based heavy units, all listed in current Italian procurement plans. High payloads and off-road mobility make SMR6 suitable as a system carrier for radar, EW, and C2 shelters, directly supporting the Italian Army’s emerging Multi Domain Maneuver Brigade concept, where dispersed command posts must be picked up and relocated under electronic and drone threat.

The move to a single modern truck family is almost as important as the raw numbers. Today’s Italian logistics line is a patchwork of ACM 80/90 and ACL 90 4x4 trucks dating from the 1980s, earlier ACTL SM and SMH series, and HD6 heavy trucks introduced in the 1990s, many of which lack modern protection, digital architecture, and Euro 6 class powertrains. While ACTL already brought NATO standard protection and CTIS to parts of the fleet, payload and towing capacity are fragmented across multiple sub-families and generations. SMR6, born from the MMR project and rated for payloads up to around 40 tonnes in its heaviest configurations, rationalizes this legacy into one scalable architecture with harmonized spares, training, and diagnostic tools. For brigade logisticians, this means fewer line items in the supply chain and the ability to swap cabs and mission bodies across a shared chassis pool.

The decision is also about survivability and compliance. The new trucks bring higher electromagnetic compatibility, ADR compliance for hazardous cargo, and integrated options for armoring against small arms fire, IED fragments, and anti-personnel mines, reflecting evolving NATO standards developed after years of deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. With deeper fording, better traction management, and improved power-to-weight ratios, SMR6 allows logistics convoys to follow combat formations off paved roads, reducing predictability and exposure to ambush along main supply routes. In a scenario where Italian units may have to reinforce the Alliance’s eastern flank on short notice, that mobility becomes a prerequisite for sustaining high-intensity operations.

Although SMR6 is tailored around Italian requirements, it sits atop technology already circulating across Europe. IDV’s Modular Military Range heavy trucks are widely adopted by several NATO armies and are heavily used as prime movers for main battle tanks and other heavy systems, giving Rome confidence it is buying into a maturing ecosystem rather than a bespoke design. The Netherlands has signed a multi-year framework with IDV for new heavy trucks, while IDV has teamed with AM General to offer a similar architecture for the US Army’s Common Tactical Truck program, underscoring export momentum and long-term support prospects.

Strategically, this second tranche of 658 vehicles locks in a 15-year production and support pipeline at IDV’s Piacenza plant, just as Leonardo moves to acquire the company and consolidate Italy’s land systems industrial base under a single prime. For the Italian Army, it is a bet that future campaigns will be decided as much by protected, standardized logistics as by headline combat platforms. For NATO planners watching Italy’s transformation into a fully networked, heavy brigade contributor, the SMR6 fleet is the quiet enabler that will keep those new guns, tanks, and air defenses fueled, armed, and moving.