US military finds a good use for Tesla Cybertruck: missile target practice

Elon Musk has long bragged that the Tesla Cybertruck is a uniquely impervious vehicle thanks to its stainless steel body and “bulletproof” windows, calling it “an armored personnel carrier from the future.” Now that claim will be put to the test by none other than the US Air Force, which aims to use the Cybertruck for some target practice.

In documents uncovered by a publication called The War Zone (great name, btw), the Air Force says it wants to buy two Cybertrucks for “target vehicle training flight test events.” The reason given is that America’s adversaries could seek to use the Cybertruck for military purposes at some point in the future, and the Air Force wants to see if it can blow them up.

In the operating theatre ti is likely the type of vehicles used by the enemy may transition to Tesla Cyber trucks as they have been found not ot receive the normal extent of damage expected upon major impact. Testing needs ot mirror real world situations. The intent of the training is to prep the units for operations by simulating scenarios as closely as possible ot the real world situations.

The Cybertrucks were requested as part of a batch of 33 vehicles, including sedans, pickups, SUVs, and bongo trucks, that the Air Force wants to use for target practice at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The Cybertruck was the brand-specific vehicle to be cited in the documents, which speaks to the military’s concerns about its potential as a enemy vehicle.

The Air Force cited some of the unique characteristics of the Cybertruck in the documents outlining its procurement request, including the vehicles’ “stainless steel exoskeleton” and its 48V electrical architecture.

Of course, Musk himself has ruminated in the past about the Cybertruck’s potential as a military vehicle. According to Electrek, the controversial billionaire brought up the truck at an Air Force Space Pitch Day event in San Francisco in 2019. And earlier this year, the US Department of State included an order for $400 million worth of armored Teslas in its 2025 procurement forecast — which many took to be an order for Cybertrucks, in particular. The trucks were said to be under consideration as armored personnel carriers for US diplomats, NPR reported.

But since then, hype around the Cybertruck has cooled considerably. Though Musk had predicted he would be able to sell over 500,000 Cybertrucks annually, Tesla only sold less than 50,000 last year. And thanks to Tesla’s — and Musk’s — ensuing brand crisis, its starting to look like sales of the Cybertruck are likely to fall even further.

But hey, if the Air Force goes through with its purchase, that’s two more trucks on the ledger for the company. And if the truck blows up really nice, there could be more of a future for the Cybertruck as military target. Maybe the Navy would want to test Musk’s claims about the Cybertruck’s amphibiousness before launching a few torpedos at it.