Chains, grilles and jammers: Russia's ULAN-2 and the future British Army Land Rover

After 76 years of service, the British Army is looking for a replacement for the Land Rover and on the battlefields of Ukraine, Russia has offered one example of how a light mobility vehicle is being reshaped by modern war.

The ULAN-2 is a basic all-terrain 4x4 designed to move troops, ammunition and equipment. 

It is based on the GAZ Sobol, a Russian light van built at the Gorky Automobile Factory in Nizhny Novgorod, and comes with little beyond the essentials.

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Russian troops then modify it in the field, welding metal frames to the body, fitting what they describe as "rubber technical shields" to reduce shrapnel damage, replacing doors with chains, adding steel louvred grilles to the windows and mounting electronic jamming equipment on the roof in an attempt to counter drones.

Rather than designing a specialist vehicle from scratch, Russia has taken an off-the-shelf platform and adapted it for military use, an approach that also sits behind the MOD's thinking as it looks for a cheaper, faster and more scalable successor to the Land Rover.

The comparison only goes so far. Any British replacement is likely to be far more advanced than the ULAN-2. 

But the Russian vehicle still shows what now matters on a battlefield dominated by drones, constant surveillance and rapidly changing threats. 

Whatever replaces the Land Rover will also need that modularity, the ability to add jamming equipment and other systems, then swap them out as the threat changes.