NP Aerospace launches enhanced and upgraded armoured Land Cruiser

Vehicle integrator and armour manufacturer NP Aerospace announced the launch of its upgraded armoured Toyota Land Cruiser LC300 vehicle on 21 October 2025, the announcement coinciding with the Civilian Armoured Vehicle (CAV) Forum taking place in Geneva from 21-23 October.

The intellectual property rights for the vehicle, along with certain other assets of Jankel Armouring Limited, were acquired by NP Aerospace in 2024 when Jankel went into administration. Since then, NP Aerospace has applied its vehicle engineering and integration, production and supply chain skillsets to the vehicle and is now launching it as a significantly refined and upgraded NP Aerospace platform.

The revamped LC300, according to NP Aerospace, delivers “unprecedented levels of protection, functionality and reliability” and is already being sought after and ordered by a numerous global defence ministries and non-government organisations (NGOs).

NP Aerospace has qualified the LC300 to the latest Edition 3 of the international VPAM Ballistic Resistance of Vehicles (BRV) and Explosive Resistance of Vehicles (ERV) to standard VR7, as well as PAS 300 ballistic and blast and PAS 301 vehicle performance criteria. The company has thus ensured the platform provides optimum protection yet remains road legal for NATO and European-based NGO customers, maximising the export potential to wider international user groups. The vehicle was the very first to be certified to VPAM VR7 BRV and ERV with a 2 m side blast with a third row of seats in accordance with VPAM Edition 3, which uses biofidelic dummies to understand the true impacts to a vehicle’s occupants.

The LC300 has been designed with a bolt-in armour solution to provide efficiencies during the assembly process, electrical systems modularity, and unique patented technologies to provide customers with a 10-year service life. In recent months NP Aerospace says its team has been delivering a range of structural upgrades to account for increased vehicle mass and payload, such as double cab and extended chassis variants. In addition, the coompany has also integrated complex communications systems to meet a range of customer needs.

Throughout this process NP Aerospace says it has further refined the vehicle design and production practices “to optimise the vehicle and bring it up to the very best standards in terms of capability, production efficiency, quality and through-life supportability”. To achieve this, the company’s team in Coventry has been expanded. In July 2025 NP Aerospace launched the CAV support capability offering to ensure that the very best support services can be delivered to current customers but also to expand that proven service offering across the global fleets. Potential new CAV support clients range from ministries of defence to NGOs, with individual vehicle fleets widely spread in terms of their deployed geography. The CAV service is offered with the LC300 armoured platform.

David Petheram, managing director and senior vice president of NP Aerospace Vehicle Systems, Services and Spares, was quoted in a company press release as noted that, since acquiring the LC300 design from Jankel, “we’ve further enhanced and refined the platform, adding in the NP Aerospace DNA, as we have responded to complex customer requirements.

“Specifically, our integration, production and supply chain skillsets have been applied to this project to optimise the benefits to the procurer, the fleet manager and the user,” said Petheram. “What we now have is a better platform when viewed from all perspectives and we’re pleased to be able to offer it to global markets. The civilian armoured vehicle (CAV) market offers great growth potential and is a significant area of focus for us as we continue to expand our team.”