Military with Bob Morrison
Bob Morrison gets his hands on some snaps of French Station Wagons on exercise. He takes up the story
Our military expert looks at French military Defenders
FRANCE MAY be Britain’s nearest overseas neighbour but the country’s armed forces have not traditionally made widespread use of the Defender and, as they rarely play a major part in NATO multinational exercises involving Land Forces contingents, they have only occasionally popped on to the radar of this column.
On those occasions where we have worked with our Gallic neighbours participating on bilateral exercises with their British equivalents – until recently, mostly in the airborne and amphibious spheres – the Forces Armées Françaises have primarily brought the ageing Peugeot P4 as their light utility vehicle.
In early January 2015, in response to the hideous Charlie Hebdo attack by fundamentalist terrorists, the French Government raised their Vigipirate national security alert system to Attack status in the Paris region and flooded armed troops into the area under Operation Sentinelle. Since then, Land Rover Defenders with military registration plates and carrying Vigipirate stickers or windscreen cards have several times made fleeting appearances on news channel footage whenever soldiers are deployed on the streets as a reassurance measure in times of heightened tensions.
Every one of these Vigipirate Defenders I have spotted on the TV, or occasionally on relatively obscure websites, has been a fivedoor D110 Station Wagon model and base colours have varied from Sand to Nato Green to Sage Green. The sand and sage coloured vehicles I have observed, usually bearing French Army (Armée de Terre) 6092-series registration plates, were clearly newer models based on civilian specification Defenders with minor modifications for military use. However, the Nato Green coloured Rovers all appeared to be older 6061-series militarised versions.
Since 1962, except when operational commitments have prevented it, the airborne forces of France and Germany have conducted annual bilateral training manoeuvres under the Exercise Colibri banner. In recent years, however, the French have invited other NATO nations, including Spain and the US, to send troops as well and, in September 2016, a platoon from the Royal Gurkha Rifles became the first British Army participants. While my colleague Carl Schulze was in South West France covering the German and British contingents he spotted a number of the rarely-photographed French Army D110 Station Wagons and made a point of snapping them for my military Land Rover image archive.
After a fair bit of delving, I discovered that the Nato Green Defenders seen here, which have the concave bonnet indicating they are powered by either the 2493cc Td5 or possibly the 2495cc 300Tdi engine, were primarily procured for use on France’s training areas and establishments. This could explain why I
“In response to the Charlie Hebdo attack the French raised their security”
have not encountered any on bilateral exercises and why they so rarely appear in photographs; nobody other than enthusiasts ever seem to pay much attention to Land Rovers, as the brand has been so ubiquitous for the last 65 years.
As can be seen from the photos the Nato Green French vehicles, which have had some panels replaced or repainted, they have been at least partially militarised with elongated, hemispherical antennae mount bases on the left front wing, both sides at the rear, in place of the small glazing panels. They also have a small roof-mounted antenna, above the front passenger, which is possibly for VHF communications but might also be for a fleet management tracker. Both front and rear light clusters are protected by cages and an LMT steering guard is fitted. Note also the tubular sill protection each side.
Seating configuration in these older vehicles is for up to nine, with two in the front, three in the row behind, and four more on simple inward-facing bench seats in the rear. If necessary, the seat squabs could be hinged upwards to give more usable cargo space in the rear. Tyres fitted to all three Nato Green Defenders are Michelin 4x4 O/R tyres on plain steel wheels, with the spare being mounted on a plain carrier on the rear door.
From published sources it would appear that in 2009 the French military procured some 300-plus new Defender 110 Station Wagons, primarily to be used in support roles in France rather than issued to frontline formations or despatched to the French overseas territories. Their main function appears to be similar to that of the UK Forces White Fleet (see January 2017 issue) but, unlike their British equivalents, which are contract leased and carry civilian registration numbers, the French Ministry of Defence owns them and they carry military number plates complete with the French Army tricolour bisected by a sword.
This 2009 batch of Defenders, along with a subsequent order which brought the new fleet total to somewhere between 600 to 700, was primarily delivered in a civilian specification gloss colour which, for ease of description, I call sage green; for the purists, the precise colour is most likely Keswick Green. This is not, however, the only colour that the more recent Station Wagon batches can be seen in as there is photographic proof that both Desert Sand and Nato Green vehicles are in use. One French source tells me the former were originally procured for use by French military based overseas and they appear to be of similar colour to the small fleet of rarely seen French Special Operations five-door Wmik-style gunships.
It is my belief that these later Station Wagons were all supplied by coachbuilders Durisotti, with whom both French government departments and Jaguar Land Rover have had close working relationships. If you look closely underneath Rover on the bonnet of the vehicle with the Day- Glo identification panel you will see a small badge with the Sallaumines-based company’s name and most, though not all, similar vehicles sport that same identifier.
These newer vehicles, as is to be expected given they are post-2007, all have the convex bonnet denoting a Ford Duratorq Puma engine is the power source – only close inspection would confirm whether a 2402cc or 2199cc unit was fitted, but that was not possible as the images were taken in passing by Carl. While looking at the bonnet area, note the single antenna mount base on the front left wing. This is of a different style to that seen on earlier French Defender Station Wagons, and no rear mounts are fitted to the newer models.
The tyres fitted to the later Durisotti Station Wagons are the Michelin Latitude Cross model, which the manufacturer claims is a “multipurpose 4x4 tyre with the traction of an off-road tyre, the comfort of an on-road tyre and excellent mileage” though I suspect their idea of off-road might not match that of some readers of this magazine. If looking for traction on muddy ground I would prefer their 4x4 O/ Rs, though as the newer French military Defenders probably spend most of their working life on tarmac, similar to the UK MOD White Fleet, these road-biased tyres probably make more sense. The standard steel wheels fitted to these Rovers are painted cream or white.
Just like the earlier Nato Green vehicles, the Durisotti Defenders sport tubular side sill guards, light cluster cages and LMT steering guards. Their rear internal seating arrangement, however, is different with just two forward-facing folding seats making them seven-seaters.
By way of comparison, I have also included an image of a factory specification UK White Fleet D110 Station Wagon with a Puma engine dating from late 2007. I suspect this Defender, being used by Joint Terminal Air Controllers in training, will be identical to those supplied to Durisotti for conversion to French military requirements.
Next month I will cover French ambulances.