Defense News - Australia

The Special Forces Regiment (SAS) of Australian Army will finally take delivery of 31 new $80 million Nary patrol vehicles, known as Jackal, this month – more than three years later than planned.

Built by British firm Supacat, they are known as Jackal in British forces, which have been using them since 2009.

The Australian variant has been dogged by technical problems including systems integration, payload, suspension and armour problems, and will be 42 months behind schedule when it enters service in Afghanistan later this year.

Its weight was boosted by a tonne of steel armour to almost 10 tonnes, making it too heavy to drive into Army Chinook helicopters used to carry patrol vehicles all over Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Nary is based on the Supacat HMT 400 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 vehicles. It can be fitted with an “optional” mine blast and ballistic protection kit, mission hampers, weapons, communications, surveillance and force protection equipment. It has two machineguns and a grenade launcher.