The British Army have ordered an ‘extenda’ version of the Jackal 3 High Mobility Transporters (HMTs) to be produced. All 53 vehicles will be manufactured by Babcock at its Devonport manufacturing facility.
Notably, this deal expands on an orginal call for two suppliers – Babcock and Supacat – to deliver 70 conventional Jackal 3 vehicles in February last year, for which production is already well underway.
This first increment is scheduled for completion by the end of summer 2024, though delivery has yet to be officially announced.
According to Supacat, the British Army contract has an option for up to 240 of the light armoured vehicles, should optional requirements demand them.
Babcock has been building its share of the initial Jackal 3 order at its Devonport site, while the remaining eight vehicles will be built at Supacat’s manufacturing facilities in Dunkeswell.
What is unique about the new Jackal 3(E) variant?
This latest contract for a six-wheeled ‘extenda’ variant will be known as the Jackal 3(E).
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The additional axle enables greater load carrying while still maintaining off-road performance, capable of speeds up to 120kmh.
In service with Special Forces around the world, this next iteration offers a versatile capability that allows the user the choice of either a 4×4 or 6×6 wheel drive vehicle delivered by one platform in left or right hand drive.
This flexibility is enabled by Supacat’s modular design approach, which provides a range of configuration options at production and the ability to re-role the base platform throughout the lifetime of the vehicle, with a variety of mission modules and protection levels available to meet changing demands.
Babcock confirmed that production of the extenda version will commence in early 2025 in Devonport; delivery of the vehicles is expected in early 2026, securing 100 Babcock jobs in the South West.
Jackal 3 is just one of the options in British Army LMP
When the Jackal 3 was first ordered in February 2023, the contract came as part of a wider initiative to reduce the type of land vehicles the service oeprate from as many as sixteen types to four under the Land Mobility Programme (LMP).
Revealed at the DSEI event in London in September 2023, funding for the first ten years of the LMP would be around £2.2bn ($2.9bn), although replacement platforms would not be acquired on a one-for-one basis, with the emphasis around increasing commonality across base platforms that can be re-rolled or fitted with mission-specific equipment.
One of the main causes of the range of platforms utilised in the British Army’s mobility fleet is a legacy of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the service found itself under-equipped for the type of vehicles required to conduct sustained counter-insurgency operations.
Overall, platform numbers being sought under the LMP effort are still being refined, but information presented at a British Army briefing saw four main categories of platforms being sought – Heavy, Medium, Light, and Utility – for a potential total of around 8,000 vehicles.
The Heavy platform would weight between 20-40,000kg; the Medium platform is envisaged to weigh up to 20,000kg; the Light platform would weigh up to 10,000kg.
The Jackal 3 has a gross vehicle weight of 7,600kg. Its kerb weight (with fuel and armour) is 5,500kg and its payload capacity is 2,100kg.
Additional reporting from Richard Thomas.
