In its early years, Jankel provided specialist design and manufacturing services to improve the performance of rally and racing cars.
By 1970 Jankel had established Panther Westwinds and was manufacturing production sport cars and coach-built touring limousines for VIP customers.
Jankel then diversified into coachwork for the likes of Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Mercedes-Benz, specialising in armoured, Head of State vehicles.
From 1983 to 1989, Jankel was the exclusive subcontractor to Rolls-Royce Motor cars to build more than 130 units of the Silver Spur Limousine, a 42-inch extension of the standard vehicle.
Jankel also introduced the Aigis discreet paramilitary vehicle, this based on General Motors K series chassis and automotives.
Orders disclosed around this time included 60 AB2 Al-Jawad and 500 examples of the Desert Iris, the latter a light strike buggy-type design.
JLVM has a production strategy of ‘Build to Order’ and/or ‘Engineer to Order’ for the customer's specific requirements, ranging from soft skin and special purpose vehicles, to fully armoured internal security vehicles (ISVs) based on a variety of commercial off the shelf chassis.
[1][6][3] In 2004, Jankel secured its first Long Term Supply Agreement with the United Nations, for a range of armoured Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles, this leading to the expansion of the JLVM.
Other export customers have included Botswana, Brunei, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, South Korea, and Spain.
[7] The Iraq War (and then Afghanistan) and the increased intensity of IED attacks would generate substantial business for the company.
As part of this process Jankel discovered that all the seats available on the market were not fit for purpose to protect the soldiers in light vehicles from blast acceleration in particular.
[3] In 2008 Jankel unveiled the prototype of the Hunter, an internal security vehicle based on the Toyata Land Cruiser 79 Series chassis.
[8] It was disclosed in August 2009 that the now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) had appointed Jankel as a worldwide distributors for the Jeep J8 to supply to government and military customers.
[7] In March 2018 Jankel announced a second award from the Belgian MoD, this a contract for 199 Light Troop Transport Vehicles (LTTVs) that will be delivered between 2019 and 2021.
Based on a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U5000 chassis, the LTTV fleet will be procured in four variants: special operations forces (SOF), rangers, ambulance and command post.
During the first three months of 2019 Jankel announced ‘production ready’ status for the latest generation of the Hunter Tactical Intervention Vehicle (TIV).
At the time of the announcement Jankel revealed that the company had over 350 vehicles in service across 11 countries in the Middle east and neighbouring regions.
The company also made two US-related announcements: Jankel Tactical Systems was awarded contracts to supply armoured Chevrolet Suburbans and Toyota Land Cruisers to the US Marshals Service and the US Customs and Border Patrol, and was also awarded three contracts to supply BLASTech mitigation seats to a US based MRAP provider.
The award (initially of a 12-month duration) will see Jankel delivering a service provision package in support of a wide range of non-standard tactical and armoured military and civilian vehicles.
By early 2024 Jankel Armouring Limited’s ongoing financial difficulties stemming from the late delivery of Unimog based LTTV vehicles to the Belgian MoD worsened.