VAMTAC Rapid Ranger 4x4 air defence vehicle could fill the gap left by donated Stormers
The UK's armoured Stormer vehicles, a mobile platform for the Starstreak High-Velocity Missile system, are due to be retired from service before the end of the decade.
A replacement is currently being considered by the Army after six Stormer vehicles were sent to Ukraine.
What could be on the horizon for British personnel is a 4x4 that looks just like the American Humvee.
The kit in question is the VAMTAC Rapid Ranger 4x4 air defence vehicle.
"We've offered this to them [the Army] as something that is available now, in service elsewhere in the world," Nigel Roughton from aerospace and defence company Thales UK, told Forces News.
Mr Roughton explained how the package has proven service capability.
He added: "It offers a lightweight mounted SHORAD capability, so the ability to deploy rapidly, by air if necessary, as it has a low-profile turret.
"Anywhere that you would want to deploy force for a rapid reinforcement... it can operate in support of vital point defence in a more traditional mobile role or a manoeuvre support role to the field army."
The VAMTAC Rapid Ranger is already in use by forces elsewhere in the world, particularly in southeast Asia.
For the UK the tactical control console system used in Stormer would be put into the vehicle to help minimise retraining.
As well as not differing significantly in terms of functionality, it employs the same missiles as Stormer, in the form of the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) and the Starstreak High-Velocity Missile (HVM).
But there are differences.
The VAMTAC vehicle is not tracked – so is less all-terrain and it is not as well protected.
Thales, however, says what it loses in protection it makes up for in agility.
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