Santana Militar 109
Long-wheelbase military Land Rover developed by Spain's Santana works at Linares — the Militar 109, an angular flat-fronted troop carrier built for the Spanish armed forces from around 1969 alongside the short-wheelbase Militar 88.
Factory colours
- Spanish Army Green (caqui verdoso)
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
History
Metalúrgica de Santa Ana, S.A. was founded in Linares, Andalusia, in 1954 and began building Land Rovers under licence in 1958, initially from CKD kits and, by 1968, with fully Spanish content. Early Spanish Army Land Rovers were essentially civilian-specification Series models painted military green, but from the late 1960s Santana developed dedicated military designs of its own: the short-wheelbase Militar 88 and the long-wheelbase Militar 109, in production for the Spanish Armed Forces by the turn of the 1970s.
Where ordinary Santanas kept Solihull's rounded wings and inset grille, the Militar range wore a squared-off, flat-fronted body closer in spirit to the British Lightweight/Airportable 88 — simplified panels, flat wing tops, folding windscreen — over Series mechanicals with Santana-built 2.25-litre four-cylinder petrol or diesel engines. The Militar 109 served the Spanish Army as a canvas-topped troop and cargo carrier, and the same chassis carried specialist bodies including box ambulances and communications vehicles; exports went to countries including Morocco and Egypt.
The Militars earned a strong reputation for solidity and reliability in Spanish service — by some accounts outperforming the Nissan Patrols that began replacing them — and soldiered on with the Ejército de Tierra, Guardia Civil and other services from the 1970s until being phased out from the late 1980s onward. Santana's ties with Land Rover ended in 1990, and the company itself closed in 2011. Precise production figures for the Militar 109 have not been published.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Metalúrgica de Santa Ana, S.A. (Land Rover Santana), under Rover licence
- Manufactured
- circa 1969 – late 1980s
- Engine type
- Santana-built 2.25 L inline-four, petrol or diesel
- Country of origin
- Spain
- Status
- retired; examples preserved
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Santana
- Wheels
- 4
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
- Santana Motor (company history, licence 1958-1990, Santana Militar from 1969) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
- Wheels of Steel (Santana's own designs, the Militar 88 and Militar 109, for the Spanish Armed Forces) ↗ — Key Military (accessed 2026-09-10)
- Land Rover Santana 88 Ligero: del cuartel a la calle (military versions from the late 1960s; phased out after 1987) ↗ — Garajes Iberia (accessed 2026-09-10)
Drive it
This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.
RACE THE SANTANA MILITAR 109 ↗Registry record updated 2026-09-09T15:06:12.662Z · status: draft