Land Rover Perentie

The Land Rover Perentie is a Nickname for the Land Rover 110 produced by JRA Limited for the Australian Army, part manufactured and assembled in Moorebank NSW, Australia during the second half of the 1980s and into the 1990s. It was based on the Land Rover Defender 110, and introduced in 1987 to replace the ageing fleet of Series 2A and 3 Land Rovers, and as of February 2013 in a disposal phase with the remaining in service units being reduced as the replacement Mercedes-Benz G-Class under Defence Procurement Project Land 121 phase 3A are supplied to units.

The Land Rover Perenties were produced in 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 variants and powered by an Isuzu 3.9-litre four-cylinder 4BD1 diesel engine or 4BD1-T turbo (see List of Isuzu engines), it has proven itself both in Australia and on overseas military operations including Somalia, Timor Leste, Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The major differences from British Land Rovers are the widened rear chassis for the relocation of the spare wheel to under the rear of the load area, a galvanised chassis and the Isuzu engine, which was also commonly used in the 1980s on Australian-built long-wheelbase civilian versions of the Series and Defender Land Rovers. The 6 x 6 version has a wider cab and load sharing leaf-sprung rear axles. The 6 x 6 also has a turbocharger. The original order was for 2,500 4 x 4 and 400 6 x 6 vehicles between 1987 and 1990; further vehicles were added later under Project Bushranger.

The name Perentie originates from Land Rover's successfull tender to Project Perentie, the official Australian Army/Defence Procurement trials to select new 1 and 2 tonne light vehicles – the The project Perentie trials compared the Land Rover/Isuzu 110 and 6X6 variants against, the Jeep AM10, the Mercedes-Benz 300GD and Unimog with the Toyota Landcruiser evaluated 2 years later.

The origins of the name comes from the lizard species Perentie (Varanus giganteus) which is the largest goanna lizard native to Australia.