British Cold War

Armoured Cars

Bushmaster (UK SF Variant)

Thales Bushmaster The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle was originally designed in the 1990s for the Australian Forces to use in the arid northern territories of Australia.  Often jokingly referred to as an armoured Winnebago, the vehicle is based on a design from Australian firm Perry Engineering,  itself derived from an Irish design by Timoney Technologies.  It features 4WD, commonality of parts with the US FMTV vehicle series and a very high level of protection for its occupants against small arms fire, roadside IEDs and and mines.  Able to carry 9 troops and their supplies or up to 3 days, it is fully air- conditioned and has a range of over 800 km at up to 100 km/h. It is also air-transportable by C-130. Over 800 vehicles have been built, seeing active combat service  in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine.  The UK MoD acquired a small batch of 24 Thales Bushmasters in 2008, apparently for use by SF in Iraq.  The vehicles were fitted with an enhanced armour package, bull bars for crossing barricades, mission specific comms,  ECM and anti- IED packages as well as a Thales CROWS remote weapon station equipped with a 50mm machine gun.  The same (or similar) vehicles were subsequently reported in Syria in 2017 although the user units (and possibly their nationality) is not clear. Australia has supplied Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine, where they have proven very popular.  In 2021, the Bushmaster was put forward as a candidate for the British Army’s delayed Multi-Role- Vehicle -Protected (MRV-P)  programme. This is the Dragon 1/72 kit, which comes in a number of versions, reflecting the Bushmaster’s wide use by several nations. Return to Recce & Patrol page Return to British Cold War page Return to Dark Side AFVs index page Return to Gengriz Modelling Index Page