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PERENTIE 110 General Information
Australian Army Perentie Production vehicles have
registration numbers ranging from 48-000 upwards to the
200-XXX range for the later built vehicles
Perentie vehicles in the RAAF have
registration numbers in the ranges of 230xxx, 231xxx &
232xxx.
Taken from Publication EDE 2/90, Project
Perentie Profile, Vehicle Information Brochure. Engineering
Development Establishment, Australian Army.
The Army Staff requirement for the army's range
of light field vehicles was approved in February 1981. From
this EDE prepared a Requirement Study and draft Design and
Development (DD(X)) Specifications which were issued in June
1981.
The approved specifications were used as a basis
for the calling of tenders in June 1982 for a Truck, Utility,
Lightweight, MC2 with payload between 0.7 and 1 tonne and a
Truck, Cargo, Light, MC2 with payload between 1.5 and 2 tonne.
From the seven tenders received for each vehicle
type, a short list of three of the 1 tonne class, vehicles and
two of the 2 tonne class vehicles was arrived at. Orders for
three examples of each contender for evaluation trials were
announced in May 1983.
Defence Trial 8/484 for Light Vehicles was
notified in September 1983 together with the establishment of
a special trials unit, the Light Truck Trials Team. This unit
was based at Puckapunyal and operated two of the three vehicles
of each type to evaluate them in typical operational roles.
The third vehicle of each type underwent initial examination,
specification check and automotive reliability assessment by
EDE at it's proving ground, Monegeetta, Victoria.
Following revalidation of tenders for production
quantities of vehicles, contracts were signed with Jaguar
Rover Australia in October 1986 for 2500 Land Rover 110 4x4
vehicles, and 400 Land Rover 110 6x6 vehicles.
The Truck, Utility, Lightweight, MC2 was to be
developed into a total of six variants, and the Truck, Cargo,
Light, MC2, which was to have only a basic cargo body version,
was also ultimately developed to produce six variants.
The first production Land Rover 110 4x4s were
accepted into service in August 1987 and the first Land Rover
110 6x6 in March 1989.
The original JRA press release circa October 1988 told of the progress of the JRA contract to supply "2500 4WD
units and 400 6WD units" valued at roughly $130,000,000 (with
local Australian manufacturing content set at 50% for the 4WD
and 60% for the 6WD). It also mentions the Army had
satisfactorily finished "several months of rigorous testing"
the Initial Production Vehicles ("IPVs") "supplied earlier
this year to various Army units around Australia" and that JRA
had "attended to the many points raised by the Army" and
incorporated these improvements. No mention of R.A.A.F. units.
.A small news piece
in the May 1994 issue of Overlander magazine
tells us "The Australian Army has ordered another 270 Land
Rovers to supplement its present fleet of 3700 6WD and 4WD
Project Perentie models. The additional Landys, which were
ordered under the terms of "follow-on buy" options in the
original contract, will be used as basic infantry carriers,
mainly in Australia's far north. [Norforce?] The original
Perentie Project was named after the desert-dwelling
perentie lizard and was aimed at finding vehicles with the
perentie's legendary agility in trackless terrain, its
endurance, and its adaptability. Project Perentie director
Lt. Col. Lee Osborne said, "It made sense to us to continue
with Land Rovers because of their advantageous life-cycle
costs. Over the life of the vehicle in Army service -up to
20 years or more- the Land Rovers prove to be very
economical." The photos accompanying the piece are of two GS
units, ARN 48-014 & ARN 48-016. No mention of R.A.A.F.
units.
Of interest, is that 48-008 (the first true production Perentie 110) through to 48-033 (all GS vehicles) came off the production line with plain olive drab canopies. It was not until 48-034 that the DPP canopies were fitted, although the remainder were retrofitted during their service life. The early vehicles were all finished in plain olive drab and it was not until down the line that the camouflage scheme was adopted as the standard some 100 ish vehicles.
In August 1992 the Australian Army made the call that they would standardise the fleet with the Brush Bar fitted to the RFSV for the 4x4 vehicles. However Land Rover Australia still had, well a lot of the original style bar in stock. So it was decided that the changeover would be a phased changeover as needed, in order to run down the stocks of the original bar. |
