Defender 130 Kajman.

Formally designated LAND ROVER DEFENDER - MILITARY ARMOURED 4, the Kajman grew out of Czech special forces' experience with earlier Defender-based SOV vehicles. Conversion work was carried out in the Czech Republic by armour specialist SVOS of Přelouč (some reports also credit AMT and the VOP military repair works in the programme), on the stretched Defender 130 chassis with the 2.4-litre Ford Duratorq 'Puma' turbodiesel of the late-production Defender. The body is a hybrid: Station Wagon lower panels mated to a High Capacity Pick Up rear tray, over which sits a removable roll cage carrying a weapon ring. Anti-fragmentation armour around the crew positions and underside blast protection meet STANAG 4569 Level 1, and each vehicle carries a winch, reinforced wheels, twin jerry-can racks at the nose and a swing-away rear stowage pannier.

The Kajman carries a driver plus a fully equipped six-man squad and two support weapons, with armament options pairing a front-pintle 7.62 mm PKB with a ring-mounted 12.7 mm DŠKM or NSV heavy machine gun, an AGS-17 30 mm grenade launcher, or Minimi light machine guns. Ninety-seven vehicles were produced in 2009-2011 by armedconflicts.com's count - a prototype and 79 series Kajmans for the 601st Special Forces Group and the 43rd Airborne Battalion at Chrudim (first deliveries December 2009), plus the slightly different Kajman M1 batch (ten per CZ Defence) for the 102nd Reconnaissance Battalion.

In service the type became the workhorse of the Czech airborne and special operations community, deploying with ISAF in Afghanistan and, from March 2013, to Bamako with the EU Training Mission in Mali, as well as to NATO exercises including NOBLE JUMP 2015 and the enhanced Vigilance Activities battlegroup in Slovakia in 2022. The fleet has aged hard - ballistic protection eats into payload, so the vehicles ran chronically overloaded, and Defender production ending in 2016 complicated support - and Czech planning called for the Kajman's service life to end around 2025, with replacement sought under the army's light strike vehicle programme.