James Arbuthnot, the then Minister of State for Defence Procurement, testitfied to the rigorous trials the Land Rover went through prior to being adopted in the British military: It is far stronger and more reliable than the Land Rover Defender on which it was based. The Wolf was tested, rejected, upgraded and tested again before the MoD was satisfied. The MoD has sold off most of the fleet of Wolf 90 Land Rovers because the Bowman radio system is too heavy for it. In Afghanistan "an average of one of these vehicles a week" was lost to enemy action, and with replacements often arriving late a "fifth of the fleet" of WMIKs was currently "damaged or has been destroyed by enemy fire". There were reports that some of this equipment was to be sold at below cost once operations in Iraq were completed as the Treasury had refused to cover the cost of replacement. The MoD later supplemented the Wolf in theatre with a range of armoured vehicles including the Snatch and Pinzgauer ATV in some utility and liaison roles and the Supercat MWMIK. Following a spate of incidents, there has been concern that the unarmoured nature of the Wolf exposes the crews to excessive danger, and they are being supplemented by more heavily armoured vehicles such as the Vector, the Mastiff and the Jackal. In keeping with their hearts and minds philosophy they were chosen for patrol duties instead of armoured fighting vehicles such as the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle. The vehicles have become a symbol of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Wolf was marketed in other countries than the UK but many foreign military Land Rover procurement agencies felt they did not need the extra strength and reliability of the Wolf because the older models had passed their own testing and Wolf was too expensive. The 1992 Snatch Land Rover, fitted with composite armour for ballistic protection, does not use the same “heavy duty” chassis. The MoD designates the Wolf 90 as Truck Utility Light (TUL) HS and the Wolf 110 as Truck Utility Medium (TUM) HS. The Land Rover Wolf is a light military vehicle based on the Land Rover Defender introduced in 1994.
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