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Named model · 6x6 deliveries from March 1989; Moorebank plant closed 30 September 1992; rebodied RBS-70 conversions later

Perentie 6×6 Air Defence

'Truck, Air Defence, Light, FFR, Winch, MC2' - the Perentie 6x6 built to carry a ground-based air defence detachment of three with either six Rapier or twelve RBS-70 missiles and their fire and target equipment. Seventy-two were built, and the type replaced the Land Rover 101 Forward Control in the Royal Australian Artillery's air defence role.

Military · Australia
Perentie 6×6 Air Defence — front three-quarter render

Factory colours

Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.

History

The 6x6 half of Project Perentie was a JRA Limited creation with no Solihull equivalent: a 110 chassis extended and given a third, load-sharing leaf-sprung axle, a wider cab, permanent four-wheel drive with selectable six-wheel drive, and the turbocharged Isuzu 4BD1-T rated at 90 kW. Deliveries began in March 1989. Of the 699 6x6s, the published variant table records 72 as 'Truck, Air Defence, Light, FFR, Winch, MC2' (liability code 73270/01) - the vehicle that took over from the Land Rover 101 Forward Control as the mount for Australia's short-range air defence batteries. Its stated role is to move up to three people including the driver together with six Rapier or twelve RBS-70 missiles and associated equipment; it is not itself a firing platform, and the Rapier vehicles carried a hitch mount beside the number plate for manoeuvring the towed fire unit.

REMLR argues the Air Defence Perentie is really two vehicles under one name. In its first form the bodywork was deliberately kept close to the general service 6x6 for camouflage reasons - only a valance where the sideboards would sit gave it away - while underneath the tray was entirely different: the RBS-70 version carried twelve sealed, pressurised missile containers across the front of the load area with the rear given over to ancillary equipment, and the Rapier version was fitted out for that system's rounds, optical tracker and fire unit stores. REMLR's own counts are 51 built for Rapier and 17 for RBS-70. When Rapier left Australian service the surviving RBS-70 system was upgraded, and its new transport and storage container was too large in diameter for the old racking; a rebodied 'new' Air Defence variant appeared with squarer, locker-sided coachwork closer in style to the Bushranger-built infantry 6x6s, in Target vehicle and Fire vehicle forms (50-676 is a documented example). Six vehicles were converted to that later standard from Rapier and RBS-70 stock, and others were converted back to plain general service trays, which required replacing the rear bodywork outright.

The customer was the Australian Army's only ground-based air defence unit, 16th Air Defence Regiment (now 16th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery) at Woodside, South Australia: 111th Air Defence Battery replaced Redeye with RBS-70 in 1987, while 110th Air Defence Battery kept Rapier until 2005. Mechanically the vehicle is standard 6x6 - 3,550 kg unladen, 5.6 tonne GVM and 7.1 tonne GCM, 2,000 kg carrying capacity, a 1,500 kg towed load, two 62-litre tanks and a Thomas T9000M winch. The Perentie fleet was retired from about 2012 in favour of the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon under Project Land 121, and disposal-auction photographs by Australian Frontline Machinery are now among the best records of the later Air Defence body.

Imagery

Royal Australian Artillery gunners engage a C-130 with an RBS-70 launcher and target data receiver at Williamson Airfield, Shoalwater Bay, May 2001. No freely licensed photograph of the Air Defence Perentie itself could be found; this shows the missile system whose rounds and equipment the vehicle carried.
Royal Australian Artillery gunners engage a C-130 with an RBS-70 launcher and target data receiver at Williamson Airfield, Shoalwater Bay, May 2001. No freely licensed photograph of the Air Defence Perentie itself could be found; this shows the missile system whose rounds and equipment the vehicle carried. Specialist Eric Hughes, United States Army · Public domain (US federal government work) ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
JRA Limited (Jaguar Rover Australia), Moorebank, New South Wales
Manufactured
6x6 deliveries from March 1989; Moorebank plant closed 30 September 1992; rebodied RBS-70 conversions later
Engine type
Isuzu 4BD1-T 3.9 L turbocharged inline-four diesel, 90 kW @ 3,200 rpm, 314 Nm @ 2,200 rpm, four-speed LT95A
Production run
72 vehicles (variant table); REMLR counts 51 built for Rapier and 17 for RBS-70, plus 6 later conversions to the rebodied Air Defence standard
Country of origin
Australia
Status
retired from ADF service; some converted back to general service, survivors sold through disposal auctions

Catalogue data

Record kind
Named model
Wheels
6

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

Catalogue references

Drive it

This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.

RACE THE PERENTIE 6×6 AIR DEFENCE ↗

Registry record updated 2026-09-10T03:20:34.492Z · status: researched