The record
France's Defenders came in from 2009 in a purchase that eventually ran to between six and seven hundred vehicles, supplied through the Sallaumines coachbuilder Durisotti, whose name badge sits above the radiator grille. Most of them do ordinary support work at home. A small number went to the special forces, and those are the ones that look nothing like the rest.
This vehicle belongs to the French Army Special Forces Command (COM FST) and is configured as a JTAC vehicle — Joint Terminal Attack Controller, the party on the ground that directs aircraft onto targets, which means it exists to sit still in exposed places while people work radios out of the back. The fit reflects that: an external rollover structure over the body carrying LED work lights, kangaroo bars front and rear, mesh screens across the glazing, and a raised air intake. The stone paint and the dust-proofing point to sub-Saharan African deployment rather than European use.
Underneath it is the standard fleet specification, a 6092-series five-door Station Wagon with the Ford Duratorq 'Puma' engine that the post-2007 convex bonnet denotes. Bob Morrison, who photographed it at the SOFINS 2019 exposition at the special forces base near Bordeaux in May 2019, noted a severely dented LMT steering guard — the vehicle had plainly seen serious off-road use.
The French Navy's special forces, FORFUSCO, run a parallel fleet of three-door Defender 90s in the 8121 registration series. No procurement quantity has been published for either special forces batch.
