The UK Defence Equipment and Support office has awarded Supacat a contract for the delivery of 70 Jackal High Mobility Truck Variant (HMTV) Mk 2 Extenda transport vehicles to the British Army.
The contract is expected to deliver the initial 70 vehicles to the British Army by the end of FY 23/24 with an option to manufacture up to a total of 240 of the light armored vehicles, should operational requirements demand.
On completion of validation trials this procurement will result in an uplift of 69 vehicles to the HMTV fleet. These platforms offer increased flexibility and due to their modular design can be used either as a Jackal (L400) or Coyote (L600) vehicle.
They will be manufactured at Supacat’s Devon based factory with support from fellow defense company Babcock at their site in Plymouth. The contract is likely to secure 10 jobs at Supacat and a further 90 jobs at Babcock.
Originally, developed in the 1990s under urgent operational requirements (UOR) to provide British forces in Afghanistan with an off-road patrol and fire-support vehicle with increased performance, the Jackal builds on the success of Supacat’s original All Terrain Mobility Platform (ATMP). The HMT platform vehicle has also proven itself internationally and is in service in Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Estonia.
Jackals can feature optional mine blast and ballistic protection kit, a variety of mission specific load beds including weapons, communications and ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance) equipment, as well as force protection equipment to suit a range of operational roles.
“This order is fantastic news for both Babcock and the local community in Plymouth. As a world-class engineering partner, we are delighted to be taking a key role in the production of this new phase of the Jackal platform, a truly British designed and manufactured vehicle,” Tom Newman, chief executive of Babcock’s Land Sector, said.
“This is an enormously important contract win for us. Primarily it further evidences our customer’s confidence in our HMT 400 product after 20 years of service,” Nick Ames, chief executive for Supacat, added.
