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Project Perentie stemmed from the Australian Army requirement for a
replacement for the Series 3 fleet, and the remaining Series 2 and 2a
specialist vehicles. The Armies requirements were first released at
a briefing to industry in July 1982, and tenders were released to manafacturers
for supply of three vehicles in each category for evaluation by the
Army. Those categories being 1 ton and 2 ton payloads.
Of the seven 1 ton submissions, the army chose three for further evaluation
and comparitive trials. These were:
Of the seven 2 ton submissions the Land Rover 110 6x6 and Mercedes-Benz Unimog U1300 were selected for evaluation. The evaluation vehicles were then handed over to the Army for extensive testing. One of each vehicle type was subjected to accelerated durability trials at the Army's Trials and Proving Wing at Monegeeta near Melbourne. Whilst the other two vehicles were involved in a very comprihensive series of user studies. This included hot wet trials at Tully in North Queensland, and cold weather trials at Khancoban in the Snowy Mountains. Various Army units around australia were also given an opportunity to trial the different vehicles. Tenders for production numbers of the vehicles closed in October 1983. This tender called for 2500 1 ton and 400 2 ton vehicles to be produced over a three to four year period commencing in May 1986 with initial vehicles. The volume of the vehicles were to be delivered beginning in May 1987. Six basic types of the 1 ton and three types of the 2 ton were specified. 1 Tonne 2 Tonne Cargo Truck Although these vehicles were based on civilian specifications, the Army vehicles differed in regard to the povision of Army fittings and equipment, the level of Australian content, and the severity of vehicle operaions. An interesting side note is the fact that 2 years after the 3 competing vehicles were entered into service, and before they were authorised for disposal, 2 registrations after the nine 4x4 vehicles were allocated to 2 Base Workshop for trials of two LWB Toyota Landcruisers. From here, history tells the story. The Land rover was the eventual winner for both contracts, and they have been going strong ever since, including a full rebuild to extend their service life in around 2006. So now a closer look at the competitors.
The Land Rover 110 4x4 (Commonly refered to as the Perentie) REMLR obviously contains a great deal of information about the eventual winner of Project Perentie, the Land Rover 110. You can access that information in the Perentie Index. The images below are of one of the Project vehicles, 37-826, which survives today in the Army Museum Bandiana. The chassis numbers of the 4x4 vehicles are nominally 400002, 400003 & 400004. However 3 were built for the army and one for Land Rover Australia, but one was written off in a crash on the way to be delivered and was replaced with the LRA vehicle. The 6x6 vehicles chassis numbers were 600002, 600003 and 600004. 600005 which must have been the LRA reference vehicle still exists and is owned by LRA. It is registered as a company vehicle. However, the vehicle is now a wide cab crew cab, having been converted from the original narrow cab reference vehicle into the prototype wide cab and subsequently into the prototype crew cab.
If you have any information or images about the Mercedies Benz vehicle that tool part in the trials, please let REMLR know.
Information about the AM10 Jeep are reasonably scarce and it is thought that at least one of the vehicles brought to Australia survives today in Australia. This vehicle appears to be a development on the civilian J10 Jeep ute. It is thought one of the reasons that the Jeep failed in it's attempt to secure the contract was it's automatic gearbox which was considered inadequate, and apparently axle breakages were also common on the trials. However the Jeep was automatically excluded because of it's petrol engine, and the requirements were for a diesel. A very similar variant of the same vehicle was accepted and uses in US Airforce service. The photographs below are from Jeep Action Magazine and further information from them about this vehicle will be arriving soon.
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