But there are other contenders for the OUVS contract including Iveco, the Italian truck maker, Ford, using its F350 pick-up, or a third-party company such as Ricardo, using a combination of vehicles from other marques.

Land Rover believes there could be some business for it in the OUVS programme, but with the future of the Defender uncertain, and the ministry’s exact requirements yet to be clarified, the company cannot say if it is intending to bid for any of the business.

“We are interested in military business,” says Phil Wilson, Land Rover’s contracts and business development manager for government and military operations. “The problem is that at the moment the MoD doesn’t know exactly what it wants. It has come up with a broad overview of the type of vehicles needed, but nothing specific. It’s a bit difficult for us, with our current model programme, to see where we might fit in.”

Page two: 55 years of the Army Land Rover

()55 years of the Army Land Rover

Maurice and Spencer Wilks, the Land Rover’s creators, never saw it as a military project, but it has played a major role in most British military activity over the past 55 years, writes Richard Lofthouse

1948: The first Land Rover (Series I), influenced by the Willys Jeep, was introduced at the Amsterdam Motor Show as “a go-anywhere vehicle, a source of portable power”

1949: The Ministry of Defence orders 50 Land Rovers, 30 powered by Rolls-Royce engines

1950s: Land Rovers see service in the Malaya emergency, Mau Mau rebellion (Kenya), Suez debacle and other British Empire incidents

1968: So-called Light Weight or Air Portable model launched to ease transportation in military aircraft or helicopters. Land Rover buffs are delirious, and it makes the vehicle more suitable to special forces deployed by air

1960s: Several generations of so-called Pink Panther desert patrol vehicles are made by Marshall Specialist Vehicles of Cambridge for use by the SAS. They were Series IIA Land Rovers painted pink — even the tyres — for low visibility in the desert

1970s onwards: Series III and Defenders converted into the armoured patrol vehicles used on the streets of Northern Ireland

1986: Six-wheeled versions are supplied by Land Rover to the Australian army

1991: The SAS uses Defender 110s to track down Iraqi Scud missile launchers in the first Gulf war

2003: US Rangers special forces use heavily armed version during the second Gulf war, reportedly preferring them to the Humvee because of their greater agility

2004: The British armed forces operate the largest fleet of Land Rovers in the world, with 21 types and an estimated 250 variants from fire tenders to Rapier missile tow units, and from field ambulances to mobile gun platforms