U.S. Army will test a new Polaris vehicle in Alaska in 2027
StoryMay 19, 2026
Flavia Camargos Pereira
Military Embedded Systems
SOF WEEK 2026--TAMPA. The U.S. Army will conduct trials with the new Polaris Voyager 155 series snowmobile in Q1 2027 as part of its effort to increase its mobility in the Arctic and in extreme cold scenarios. The announcement was made during the SOF Week 2026 show, currently underway in Tampa.
The tests are expected to take place in units located near Fairbanks and Anchorage.
“We are planning on moving sleds up there towards the end of the year, and then having demonstrations available in Alaska for those units,” said Dave Slog, Manager, Business Development for Government and Defense, for Polaris.
According to Slog, the company aims to fill a capability gap in the market between a mountain sled and a full utility sled. “We are finding a lot of requirements, especially on the military side, where they need to have a fairly light, agile snowmobile, but with a two-person rider capability,” he stated. “The Voyager is lighter, but narrower across the bulkhead [compared to other Polaris military snowmobiles] and still has a towing capacity of 450 pounds, so it checks the box for a lot of our customers.”
The vendor already has two other military snowmobiles in its portfolio, with both the 850 RMK 155 and the 850 Titan 155 equipped with the same Voyager 155 engine, the Polaris 850 Patriot.
The 850 RMK 155 was engineered to provide off-road mobility, flotation, and performance in varying snow conditions and for heavy-duty winter tasks. For its part, the 850 Titan 155 is engineered as a military off-the-shelf snowmobile to support a variety of Special Operations mission sets, such as intelligence-gathering, direct action, resupply, logistics, and military assistance.
[Soldiers assigned to the Group Support Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group.]
Apart from snowmobiles, Polaris also markets an Arctic version of the MRZR Alpha Light Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle; the Arctic variant features a mobility kit with a cab enclosure and a track system, which replaces each wheel with a separate track assembly.
The company is showing other capabilities of its product line at SOF Week, such as the Forterra MESA autonomous ground vehicle, which was built on the Polaris RANGER XD 1500 and launched in April 2026.
Other solutions on display are the MRZR Alpha 6x6, fitted with the Marine Corps Vehicle Common Launcher and Northrop Grumman Jackal; and the MRZR Alpha 1kW exportable power, equipped with the "Freedom Defense" communications system.
