The record
Metalúrgica de Santa Ana, S.A. was founded in Linares, Andalusia, in 1954 and began building Land Rovers under licence in 1958, initially from CKD kits and, by 1968, with fully Spanish content. Early Spanish Army Land Rovers were essentially civilian-specification Series models painted military green, but from the late 1960s Santana developed dedicated military designs of its own: the short-wheelbase Militar 88 and the long-wheelbase Militar 109, in production for the Spanish Armed Forces by the turn of the 1970s.
Where ordinary Santanas kept Solihull's rounded wings and inset grille, the Militar range wore a squared-off, flat-fronted body closer in spirit to the British Lightweight/Airportable 88 — simplified panels, flat wing tops, folding windscreen — over Series mechanicals with Santana-built 2.25-litre four-cylinder petrol or diesel engines. The Militar 109 served the Spanish Army as a canvas-topped troop and cargo carrier, and the same chassis carried specialist bodies including box ambulances and communications vehicles; exports went to countries including Morocco and Egypt.
The Militars earned a strong reputation for solidity and reliability in Spanish service — by some accounts outperforming the Nissan Patrols that began replacing them — and soldiered on with the Ejército de Tierra, Guardia Civil and other services from the 1970s until being phased out from the late 1980s onward. Santana's ties with Land Rover ended in 1990, and the company itself closed in 2011. Precise production figures for the Militar 109 have not been published.
Research status: draft — identification, dates or figures could not all be pinned down; the summary says what is unresolved.
