RAF TUM Enhanced Protection Vehicle
The RAF Regiment's TUM Enhanced Protection Vehicle: a Courtaulds/NP Aerospace CAV 100 composite-armoured Defender 110 like the Army's Snatch but bought new around 1999 outside the original 991-vehicle batch, recognisable by its rear body-side windows — in plain olive with two square windows in each rear body side, a glazed observation box with a central access panel on the roof, the spare on the bonnet, black bumper and grille surround with a winch, lamp guards and a snorkel.
History
The CAV 100 was Courtaulds' composite armoured body for the Defender 110, and the British Army bought 991 of them in 1992 as the Snatch, first deployed to the former Yugoslavia in 1993 and upgraded through Snatch 1.5, 2, 2A, 2B and the Snatch 3 Vixen over the next two decades. The RAF Regiment, whose field squadrons guard airfields and had their own protected-mobility requirement, ran a separate fleet of Enhanced Protection Vehicles from about 1999. Bob Morrison's research from MoD registration and contract numbers concludes they were not reworked Snatches from the original batch but completely new vehicles, and they are recognisable by the windows in the rear body sides that the Army's Snatch lacks.
The photograph, from Joint Forces' history of the CAV 100, shows an EPV in an RAF Regiment vehicle park in plain olive drab: the composite body with its rear side windows, a raised roof hatch with a raked glazed screen for a sentry, a snorkel up the left A-pillar, a spare on the bonnet, a winch in a black bumper with mesh lamp guards, and a wire-cutter bar from the bumper to the roof. The registry's model is built on the standard Defender 110 hard top at the reviewer's request, with the rear side windows, the glazed roof box and its access panel, black bumper and grille surround, winch, lamp guards and snorkel added, the glazed box set over the rear body and the spare on the bonnet as in the photograph. How many EPVs the RAF Regiment received is not stated in the source.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- NP Aerospace ↗Land Rover (Defender 110 chassis); composite armoured body by Courtaulds / NP Aerospace
- Manufactured
- Procured around 1999 (separate from the 1992 Snatch batch)
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- NP Aerospace ↗Courtaulds Aerospace / NP Aerospace (CAV 100 body)
- Engine type
- Land Rover 300 Tdi 2.5 L turbo-diesel (Defender 110 of the period; not stated in the source)
- Production run
- Unknown — a separate RAF Regiment batch
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 110″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Military Land Rovers Pt 9 — CAV 100 aka Snatch (991 produced for the British Army in 1992; RAF Regiment TUM Enhanced Protection Vehicles from around 1999, new vehicles recognisable by their rear body-side windows) ↗ — Joint Forces News (Bob Morrison) (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/18536-military-land-rovers-pt-9-cav-100-aka-snatch https://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/18536-military-land-rovers-pt-9-cav-100-aka-snatch ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T08:57:42.715Z · status: researched