UK’s Supacat starts production on Czech special forces vehicles

British vehicle maker Supacat has started production on 18 HMT Extenda military vehicles for the Czech Republic’s special operations forces, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027.

The vehicles will go to the Czech Army’s 601st Special Forces Group, the country’s premier special operations unit, replacing an aging fleet of Land Rover Defender 110 vehicles that have exceeded their 15-year design life. Supacat and its Czech partner, LPP, signed the contract in October 2025. Pre-production work began in June, and full production is now underway at Supacat’s newly opened manufacturing facility in Dunkeswell, Devon.

The deal splits the work between the UK and the Czech Republic. LPP is supplying the bare Extenda 6×6 chassis for £32.6 million ($42.6 million), while the Czech Military Technical Institute will install weapons, communications and other mission systems separately, at a cost of 810 million Czech koruna ($36.9 million). Including spare parts, training and other subsystems, the full package is valued at roughly 2.16 billion koruna ($98.4 million) with tax included, according to earlier reporting on the contract.

The HMT Extenda, known to the British Army as the Jackal 3, can be reconfigured between a 4×4 and 6×6 layout using basic workshop tools, letting operators adjust the vehicle’s size and payload capacity for different missions. It can reach speeds of up to 120 km/h (75 mph). The platform traces back to the original HMT, which the UK Ministry of Defence rushed into service in Afghanistan as an urgent operational requirement, and it has since been adopted by special forces in at least eight other countries, including Norway, New Zealand, Ukraine and the United States.

“A joint team, consisting of the LPP project team and specialists from the Czech Special Forces, visited the new production facility earlier this year,” said Miroslav Žižka, Managing Director at LPP. “This was the team’s first visit since production of the HMT Extenda began, and the main purpose of the visit was to familiarise the members of the joint team with the current status of combat vehicle production.”

“LPP and Supacat have been collaborating on this project for several years now, and communication between us is close. I would like to thank Director Phil Applegarth and his team for their dedication to the Czech project, and for meeting the vehicle delivery deadlines,” Žižka said.

“The start of the Czech production marked an important milestone for the delivery of this programme. We continue to remain on track to deliver the programme as scheduled, reflecting the maturity of the HMT Extenda platform and the dedication of the teams involved. We also look forward to other export vehicle programmes being produced in the near future,” said Phil Applegarth, Director at Supacat.