DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY NAMED MODEL · 1992
NAMED MODELSpecial · CommercialUnited Kingdom

News Media Snatch (Macedonia 2001)

An ex-military CAV 100 Snatch armoured Land Rover sold commercially to a news organisation and run as a protected press vehicle in Macedonia at the height of the 2001 insurgency: the composite-armoured Defender 110 in plain white with TV in large black letters on its doors, body sides and rear.

Drive it in the gameSources & evidence
News Media Snatch (Macedonia 2001) — front three-quarter view, registry 3D render
BASE VEHICLEDefender 110BUILT BYNP AerospaceIN SERVICE1992OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, North MacedoniaPRODUCTIONUnknownLAYOUT4 wheels · 110″

The record

Courtaulds' CAV 100 composite-armoured body on the Defender 110 chassis was bought by the British Army in 1992 as the Snatch for Northern Ireland and served on for a quarter of a century, from Bosnia in 1993 to 3 PARA's deployment to Sarajevo on Exercise QUICK RESPONSE in 2018. The CAV 100 was also sold commercially to news organisations, which needed protected transport for camera crews in conflict zones. Bob Morrison photographed a group of them in Macedonia at the height of the 2001 insurgency between the security forces and ethnic-Albanian NLA fighters: ex-military vehicles repainted white, stripped of their military fittings, wearing British registrations and marked TV in large black letters so that both sides could recognise them as press. Which broadcasters ran them, and how many, is not stated in the source.

The registry's model is its Snatch in white with the Army's ECM boxes, aerials and roof dome removed, white wheels and the TV lettering and plate from the photograph.

Specification

MANUFACTURERNP Aerospace ↗
Land Rover (Defender 110 chassis); CAV 100 composite armoured body by Courtaulds / NP Aerospace
MODIFIER / COACHBUILDEREx-military, repainted and marked for press use (converter not recorded)
MANUFACTUREDCAV 100 Snatch built from 1992; in press use by 2001
ENGINELand Rover 200 Tdi / 300 Tdi 2.5 L turbo-diesel (Snatch of the period; not stated in the source)
PRODUCTION RUNUnknown — a handful sold commercially to news organisations
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom, North Macedonia
STATUSunknown
PROTECTIONCAV 100 composite armoured body
MARKINGSWhite with black TV lettering on doors, sides and rear
SEENMacedonia, 2001 insurgency
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINEDefender
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE110″
CATEGORYSpecial · Commercial

Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.

AI rendering impression

An AI rendering impression starts from the registry's own 3D model of this vehicle, which an image model then paints into a scene. It is an artist's impression of the type, made to give a feel for the vehicle in its element — not a photograph, and not a record of any particular vehicle.

Proportions, fittings, markings, colours and the setting can all drift from the original in the process. For the vehicle's actual details, rely on the registry's 3D renders, the specification and the cited sources on this page.

Where it was

GB United Kingdom1992–2000 · British Army, then soldMK North Macedonia2001 · Press vehicle during the insurgency
  1. ServedTetovo, MacedoniaNorth Macedonia · 200142.01, 20.97

Sources

  1. 1Military Land Rovers Pt 8 — CAV 100 Snatch (Bob Morrison; notes the CAV 100 was also sold commercially to news organisations, with vehicles seen in Macedonia at the height of the 2001 insurgency) ↗Joint Forces News · accessed 2026-09-11SOURCE
  2. 2https://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/17751-military-land-rovers-pt-8-cav-100-snatchhttps://www.joint-forces.com/land-rovers/17751-military-land-rovers-pt-8-cav-100-snatch ↗REFERENCE

Registry record updated 2026-09-16T05:55:32.033Z · status: researched