The record
France came late and in bulk to the Defender. In 2009 the French military ordered some 300 new Defender 110 Station Wagons for support roles within France, and a further order took the fleet to somewhere between six and seven hundred vehicles — a substantial purchase at a point when most European armies were running their Land Rovers down rather than replacing them.
The vehicles were supplied through Durisotti, the coachbuilder at Sallaumines in the Pas-de-Calais, whose name appears on a small badge below the ROVER lettering on the bonnet rather than on the grille. Because they postdate 2007 they carry the convex bonnet that marks Land Rover's Ford Duratorq 'Puma' engine, first the 2,402 cc four and later the 2,199 cc. Inside, a change in EU legislation had ended the old inward-facing rear benches, so the French cars seat seven, with two forward-facing folding seats in the back.
Three finishes are documented across the fleet: sage green — Land Rover's Keswick Green — Desert Sand, and NATO Green. The later 6092-series Durisotti vehicles came mainly in sage green.
This record follows the convoy escort pair of the older 6072 series photographed during exercise TRIDENT JUNCTURE in Norway in 2018. Escort work gives them their distinctive fit: three orange beacons on the roof, fold-down CONVOI EXCEPTIONNEL boards, rear door windows plated over with drop-in frames for signboards, and the spare wheel carried inside the rear compartment rather than on the door. French Defenders of the type were also recorded on exercise COLIBRI in France in September 2016.
How many of the fleet were fitted for escort work has not been published; the six-to-seven-hundred figure is the whole Defender purchase, not the escort conversion.
