Polaris Government and Defense has secured orders from the US Army, Air Force and Marine Corps for its new Military 850 Voyageur 155 Crossover snowmobile, a platform the company developed in under a year to meet growing demand for agile Arctic mobility, Shephard Media reported on September 10, 2026.
The vehicle is designed to combine passenger, cargo and towing capacity in a single cold-weather platform, according to Polaris. Shephard Media, citing the company, reported that the Military 850 Voyageur 155 Crossover addresses a gap in military snowmobile capability, though the report did not disclose the number of vehicles ordered or the dollar value of the contracts.
Three-service demand
The orders span three branches of the US military, underscoring what Shephard Media described as growing demand for Arctic mobility as the Pentagon places greater emphasis on operations in cold-weather environments. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps each operate in regions where snowmobiles provide a lightweight alternative to larger ground vehicles for patrol, resupply and personnel movement.
Polaris developed the Military 850 Voyageur 155 Crossover in less than a year, according to Shephard Media, a timeline the outlet attributed to the company’s existing commercial snowmobile production base and its established Government and Defense division.
Broader cold-weather vehicle market
The Polaris orders arrive as the US military continues to invest in specialized ground vehicle capabilities. In a separate but related development, the US Army awarded Rolls-Royce Solutions America a $39.1 million contract modification in September 2026 for additional Eitan armored vehicle power packs destined for Israel, bringing that contract’s total value to approximately $158.9 million, according to Defence Blog. That work, funded through fiscal 2010 Foreign Military Sales funds, is expected to run through September 11, 2027.
While the Eitan engine order reflects demand for heavily armored wheeled vehicles, the Polaris snowmobile orders point to the opposite end of the mobility spectrum: lightweight, fast platforms for extreme cold. Shephard Media did not report a contract value or delivery timeline for the Military 850 Voyageur 155 Crossover orders.
The three-service interest in a purpose-built military snowmobile signals that Arctic and high-latitude operations are becoming a more formalized requirement across the US military, rather than a niche capability limited to a single service or special operations community.
Sources: Defence Blog · Shephard Media · DoD Contracts · US Army