Federal contracting documents freely available online (via Stars and Stripes) show the US Air Force would very much like to purchase two (2) Cybertrucks for the purpose of target practice. As one of the documents explains, "In the operating theatre it is likely the type of vehicles used by the enemy may transition to Tesla Cyber trucks as they have been found not to receive the normal extent of damage expected upon major impact. Testing needs to mirror real world situations."
Back in 2024, the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, did post a video of himself riding a Cybertruck with a mounted gun to social media, so perhaps it's a valid concern. That said, Kadyrov did later complain the vehicle had been switched off remotely when it stopped working.
The Cybertrucks are just part of a list of 33 vehicles the Air Force has put in a purchase order for so it can blow them up out at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The list also includes six black sedans, six white sedans, six blue or green sedans, five SUVs, five trucks, and three Mazda Bongos (AKA Ford Econovans). Sounds like a fun weekend for whoever's in charge of precision-guided munitions testing.
As explained in the documents, the Air Force commissioned a study into the Cybertruck's combat capabilities, and the conclusions read like advertising copy: "The study revealed that the Cybertruck's aggressively angular and futuristic design, paired with its unpainted stainless steel exoskeleton, sets it apart from competitors typically using painted steel or aluminum bodies. Additionally, its 48V electrical architecture provides superior power and efficiency, a feature that rivals are only beginning to develop."
That's a lot of verbiage to explain why you really want to roll a couple of Cybertrucks out to the desert and bomb the living shit out of them. Look, I get it. When Cybertrucks were added to Fortnite, players declared truces so they could target the fugly dystopian boxes instead of each other.
Like the bit in Fight Club where they go out of their way to smash up one of Volkswagen's "new" Beetles, it's human nature to look at a boxy nonsense vehicle and think it would look great reduced to rubble.
