Web Page sponsored by MILLBROOK
Tel: +44 (0) 1525 408408
www.millbrook.co.uk/military
————————————————————————
28 Jan 16. Landrover Defender Solihull production line ends. The last Landrover Defender will roll off the production line later ending 67 years of the popular 4×4 being made. Jaguar Land Rover has discontinued the iconic off-road vehicle, which has been exported across the world. More than two million have been made since the original Land Rover Series began production in Solihull in 1948. Plans to bring in stricter measures for new car emissions by 2020 meant there were “certain conditions the Defender just won’t meet,” the company said. “It’s the death of an icon,” said Simon Collins, Warwickshire and West Midlands Land Rover Club secretary. “With some 70% of Land Rovers ever built still around we will still be able to cuddle them and see them on the road. And while we can shed a tear, there are still lots and lots of Land Rovers,” he said.
A replacement model for the Defender was being developed to be launched in December 2016, said the manufacturer. (Source: BBC)
BATTLESPACE Comment: As most of our readers know the Editor has considerable fondness for the Defender having learnt to drive on an ex-British Army Series 1 and his first car being a Series 2a. The failure by JRA to produce a new Defender before the line closes will leave a big gap which manufacturers like Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan will rush to fill particularly in the military market where there are over 100,000 Defenders in various marques in service in over 28 countries. Spain in particular was believed to have requested 5000 new Defenders last year but was turned down due to the line closure
28 Jan 16. Israel To Equip Troop Carriers With Trophy APS. Nearly a decade later than planned, Israel this week began operational testing of its Namer heavy troop carrier equipped with the indigenously developed Trophy Active Protection System (APS). In a statement released Thursday, the Defense Ministry announced that it had completed integration of Trophy on its first Namer, a heavy troop carrier based on the locally developed Merkava Mk4 main battle tank.
After a series of operational tests that are now taking place, the Ministry’s Tank Production Office (TPO) will begin serial installation of Trophy on all new Namer vehicles rolling off the production line at the Ministry’s TPO facility east of Tel Aviv.
“At the end of a series of tests that are taking place in these days, we will begin serial installation of the system on additional vehicles. As such, we will implement MoD policy of equipping every Namer that leaves the production line with the only operational active defense system in the world,” TPO Director Brig. Gen. Baruch Matzliah said.
He added: “Namer with Trophy will provide the highest level of protection to war fighters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and will grant them security and a significant edge on the field of battle.”
Developed by the state-owned company Rafael, Trophy was initially planned for Merkava Mk4 tanks. A less expensive system developed by state-owned Israel Military Industries (IMI), known in Tel Aviv as Iron Fist, was initially developed to protect infantry deployed on Namer carriers and other armored vehicles.
But due to years of industrial infighting and the inability of MoD to impose cooperation among the battling firms, Namer carriers continued to roll off Israeli production lines without the requisite active protection that could have saved lives of Israeli infantrymen, according to numerous reports on the subject issued by Israel’s comptroller-general.
Trophy is designed to neutralize all types of chemical energy threats in flight, from rocket-propelled grenades to high-explosive rounds and tandem warhead anti-tank guided missiles. According to Rafael marketing data, it provides 360-degree protection against multiple launchings “while maintaining