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Named model · Perentie 6x6 chassis delivered from March 1989; Parakeet system in service from the mid-1990s

Perentie 6×6 Parakeet

A Perentie 6x6 carrying a Parakeet communications shelter - the Australian Army's mobile trunk and satellite communications system, developed by AWA Defence Industries under project JP65 and fielded from the mid-1990s. Parakeet was a bolt-on module rather than a factory Perentie variant, so these vehicles were standard 6x6s converted to the role.

Military · Australia
Perentie 6×6 Parakeet — 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

Parakeet is the Australian Defence Force's deployable battlefield trunk communications system: an interconnected network of mobile trunk nodes providing secure voice, data, facsimile and messaging to a deployed force, scaling from around thirty subscribers to more than three hundred. It was developed by AWA Defence Industries (AWADI) under project JP65 and entered service in the mid-1990s as the Battlespace Communications System (Land), superseding the older Battlefield Telecommunications Network; later phases, including the Parakeet 4.3 satellite and trunk assemblage, were delivered by BAE Systems Australia for both the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force. The system was operated principally by the Royal Australian Corps of Signals, and the RAAF's No. 1 Combat Communications Squadron ran Parakeet vehicles of its own. Its best-known operational outing was the 2000 peacekeeping period in East Timor, when Parakeet carried the communications link between the Australian mainland and the deployed force.

The assemblage was designed to sit on the back of a standard Australian Army Land Rover 6x6 Perentie, and that is the crucial qualification for this record: Parakeet is not one of the variants in the Perentie production table. REMLR's identification guide lists a 'Parakeet Communications Vehicle' but notes candidly that there appears to be no Army record of it as a distinct model - unsurprising given the classification of the role - and that the Parakeet module is a bolt-on unit that can be fitted to trucks as well as Land Rovers, with modules even seen on dual-cab 6x6s. What the photographs show, then, is the shelter and its equipment: a boxed electronics module on the 6x6 tray, a folding satellite terminal dish on a pivoting mast frame with ground-anchored outrigger legs, cable runs to a separate generator, and the vehicle's own winch and bull bar left untouched underneath.

Mechanically these are ordinary Perentie 6x6s: a JRA Limited extended and galvanised 110 chassis with a third load-sharing axle, wider cab, permanent four-wheel drive with selectable six-wheel drive, and the turbocharged Isuzu 4BD1-T rated at 90 kW, built at Moorebank, New South Wales and delivered from March 1989. Parakeet outlived the vehicles that carried it - the Perentie fleet was retired from around 2012 under Project Land 121 - and a modernisation of the system's subsystems was established as project JP2072 in 2017.

Imagery

Royal Australian Air Force No. 1 Combat Communications Squadron Land Rover 6x6 Parakeet vehicle on display at RAAF Base Wagga, 18 October 2009, with the satellite terminal dish raised on its mast frame
Royal Australian Air Force No. 1 Combat Communications Squadron Land Rover 6x6 Parakeet vehicle on display at RAAF Base Wagga, 18 October 2009, with the satellite terminal dish raised on its mast frame Bidgee (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 3.0 AU ↗
An Australian Defence Force satellite terminal assembly mounted on a Perentie 6x6 (ARN 50-716) transmitting during Exercise Talisman Sabre, Camp Rocky, Queensland, 5 July 2009. The US Marine Corps caption identifies the equipment only as a satellite terminal assembly, not by the Parakeet name.
An Australian Defence Force satellite terminal assembly mounted on a Perentie 6x6 (ARN 50-716) transmitting during Exercise Talisman Sabre, Camp Rocky, Queensland, 5 July 2009. The US Marine Corps caption identifies the equipment only as a satellite terminal assembly, not by the Parakeet name. Lance Cpl. Michael Augusto, US Marine Corps · Public domain (US federal government work) ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
JRA Limited (Jaguar Rover Australia), Moorebank, New South Wales
Manufactured
Perentie 6x6 chassis delivered from March 1989; Parakeet system in service from the mid-1990s
Modifier / coachbuilder
AWA Defence Industries (AWADI), Parakeet system under JP65; later phases by BAE Systems Australia
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
Not a separate production variant - Parakeet shelters were fitted to standard Perentie 6x6s (699 6x6s built in total); no published count of Parakeet-equipped vehicles
Country of origin
Australia
Status
Perentie carrier vehicles retired from ADF service; the Parakeet system continued in service and was addressed by project JP2072 from 2017

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 PARAKEET ↗

Registry record updated 2026-09-10T03:20:34.566Z · status: researched