Ford hopes MOD will home in on the Ranger as it seeks Land Rover contract

The search is underway to find a replacement for its fleet of Land Rovers and Pinzgauers, with Ford aiming to secure the deal with the Ranger.

The US giant's military offerings for the Light Mobility Vehicle programme were on show at the British Army DVD 2026 event at Millbrook proving ground.

Jim Baumbick, the president of Ford Europe, highlighted the fact that the vehicle is already in widespread use around the world.

• Best replacement for Defender should be Defender, says JLR as it courts MOD deal
• Jaguar Land Rover chasing MOD vehicle contract – to replace its fleet of Land Rovers
• People of calibre: Find out which option you suggested for the SA80's replacement

Field-proven

He told BFBS Forces News: "We have a proven platform. It's been in the field. Ranger as a pickup truck operates and actually is sold in 180-plus markets across the globe. It's been the leader for 11 years here in Europe by a far margin.

"We believe it's the best pickup and we've actually augmented that capability with a Ranger Super Duty that takes the base capability of a Ranger and moves it up to a whole new different stratosphere.

"So we're talking about a vehicle that has 2,000kg payload, 4,500kg trailer tow capability and a gross combined mass of eight tonnes.

"So you can carry and pull just about anything you need."

The toughest places on earth

Mr Baumbick pointed to the way the Ranger and Super Duty could be used to carry out a wide variety or roles while maintaining a high degree of logistical commonality.

"We're working with our partners at GD [General Dynamics Land Systems UK] and Ricardo," he said.

"We did some base work on innovative addition of a 6x6. It's a unique element and very battery-efficient.

"And what that'll give the soldiers is something that's going to be interoperable across the fleet – everything from a general-purpose vehicle that may be very similar to a Ranger that we sell the typical customers to a bespoke application, but leveraging very high commonality.

"And what that'll do is it'll enable us to leverage the full network of parts availability and service network, and something that's been proven in the field in the toughest places on earth, especially this Ranger Super Duty.

"So we're just excited to actually showcase what we think the Ranger and Ranger Super Duty can do working with our very close partners."