July 2023 is seeing high-spec vehicle integrator Jankel celebrating the delivery of over 500 Jankel Fox tactical vehicles worldwide.
The Jankel Fox product line is a family of tactical vehicles based on modified off-the-shelf Toyota base vehicles; either the Hilux or the 79 series pick-up (single and double cab), depending on each customer’s requirements.
The 500 vehicles have been designed, developed and built by Jankel in the UK, where the intellectual property (IP) resides, as well as being produced in collaboration with Jankel’s French partner, Technamm, which has built the French variant of the Jankel Fox Long Range Patrol Vehicle (LRPV) known as the ‘Jankel Fox by Masstech’. The vehicle was procured by the French Ministry of Defence (MoD) as part of an urgent requirement in 2018. The vehicles are manufactured under licence in France by Technamm at its Lambesc facility.
In 2015 Jankel was awarded an internationally competed contract to supply 108 Jankel Fox 4×4 Rapid Reaction Vehicles (RRVs) to the Belgian MoD for use by its special forces. The last of the Belgian Jankel Fox RRVs rolled off the production line in 2020. Since then Jankel has received a significant number of orders for Jankel Fox vehicles from undisclosed global customers in different variants, bringing the current total to over 500. The Jankel Fox vehicle is now in service and supported in the UK, the United States, New Zealand, Romania, France, Belgium, Botswana, Oman, Jordan, South Korea, Brunei, Spain, Italy, Mauritania and Indonesia.
The Jankel Fox family comprises three main variants: the LRPV (available in 4×4 and 6×6 variants), the RRV, and the Tactical Utility Vehicle (TUV). The vehicles have a crew of two to six and are used in a variety of roles, including: command, reconnaissance, tactical patrol, fire support, logistics, border patrolling and anti-poaching operations.
Jankel continues to spirally develop the platform in the UK with configurations and developments to integrate future mission systems across the Jankel Fox family. In doing so the company has designed and integrated upgrades to the vehicle’s off-the-shelf automotive systems, including its suspension, drive train, brakes, transmission, and power generation system. The military integration then includes weapons, communication systems, electronic countermeasures, modular armour, seating, tools and stowage.
The vehicle is compliant with multiple international defence standards that include reliability, integration, service support, operating environments, towing, tie-downs, aircraft and helicopter transportation.
Jankel has also put in place a comprehensive global support solution that is delivering all aspects of in-service support to the range of customers now operating their Jankel Fox vehicles.
Andrew Jankel, the company chairman, was quoted as saying: “This is an important milestone for Jankel as we see over 500 of our Jankel Fox tactical vehicles having been delivered to over 15 end-user groups. That’s a significant achievement, creating UK-held intellectual property and enabling Jankel to further grow the team, creating and sustaining skilled engineering jobs. The programmes have demonstrated our flexibility in producing and exporting vehicles globally, including through licensed manufacture in country, to satisfy local build requirements: a model that can be replicated anywhere”.
Jankel added, “I think there are three main points to make about the Jankel Fox: one, it’s an extremely capable and flexible platform that is now battle proven on multiple operations; two, our approach of using modified off-the-shelf base vehicles delivers the required capability but at an affordable price; three, because the Jankel Fox is based on the world-renowned and supremely reliable Toyota chassis, remote users can tap into a global support network literally anywhere. At the same time, we’ve developed a comprehensive support solution to complement that.”
Peter Felstead
