Lincolnshire parts supplier and post service design authority for military Land Rovers, Hobson Industries, will be displaying both vehicle upgrades and a gunship at next week’s DVD expo, writes Bob Morrison.
Founded in the 1980s by former Royal Navy engineer Peter Hobson, the company that bears his name quickly evolved from being a spare parts supplier into one of the country’s leading refurbishers of both armoured Land Rovers and discreetly armoured police vehicles. Around the cusp of the millennium Hobsons were instrumental in keeping the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s ageing Tangi ALR (Armoured Land Rover) fleet running by refitting them with the same turbo-diesel inter-cooled (Tdi) engine that powered the British Army’s then new Defender Wolf fleet and the company also undertook upgrade work on the protection side, but mostly this was not publicised on Operational Security grounds.

Newly refurbished RUC Tangi ALR, Drumcree, July 2001- Hobsons undertook the fleet mid-life upgrade programme [© BM]

Hobsons also re-life civilian Land Rovers – this is Project X – as of 17/09/18 it is for sale [© BM]
The company’s THEMIS up-armoured Internal Security Vehicle demonstrator was being dusted off at the time of our visit and this is also scheduled to appear at DVD 2018. Based on a Courtaulds CAV 100 (Composite Armoured Vehicle) with additional lightweight armouring to increase protection levels, this demonstrator is actually a refurbished ex-Army ‘Snatch’ Land Rover; Hobson’s vast stocks of spare and asset-managed genuine parts can be married to a sound CAV bodyshell to give an ‘as new’ up-armoured low profile vehicle at massive cost savings compared to the price of a bespoke new light protected patrol vehicle.
We will look in more depth at Hobson Industries and Hobson Parts in future features.
{ images © Bob Morrison }
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You can read more about Project X, the maroon civvy Land Rover seen above, on