Wolf WMIK.

The WMIK grew from the need to replace ad-hoc gun-armed Land Rovers with an engineered weapons platform. Ricardo (Vehicle Engineering / Special Vehicles), under contract to the MoD and working with Land Rover, developed its 'Cobra' weapons-mount concept into a kit that could be installed on — and removed from — the strengthened Wolf Defender 110 TUM HS chassis. The conversion strips the vehicle down, deletes the roof and doors, and adds a full roll cage, a rear ring mount for a heavy weapon and a pintle mount ahead of the front passenger. The first vehicles reached the British Army in the late 1990s (first deliveries are cited from 1998, with Ricardo's production of the initial batch in 1999).

A WMIK is typically crewed by a commander, driver and gunner, with the ring mount taking an L111A1 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, L134A1 40 mm grenade machine gun or L7 GPMG — early vehicles could also mount MILAN anti-tank missiles — and a second GPMG on the front pintle. In the long-range reconnaissance, force-protection and fire-support roles it deployed to Macedonia (1999), Sierra Leone (2000, Operation Palliser), Afghanistan from 2001 (Operation Herrick) and Iraq from 2003 (Operation Telic).

Operational experience drove successive upgrades: the Enhanced E-WMIK (from 2006) added protection, and the substantially rebuilt R-WMIK ('re-lifed', from 2008) and R-WMIK+ (from June 2010) introduced new chassis, protection and electrical fits to keep the platform viable against mines and small arms. Casualties from roadside bombs in Afghanistan nevertheless saw the heavier, better-protected Supacat Jackal assume much of the WMIK's role, though R-WMIKs were retained and renovated for tasks where the light, air-portable Land Rover platform still earned its keep. WMIKs were built in comparatively small numbers and are rarely released to the civilian market.