A friend of mine (who is no Landy fan at all) who moves in the right circles has told me that the new generation pinz isn't going to make it to market (as I'd already suspected) as it's not suitable for current army conflicts due to the inability to fit effective explosive protection to vehicles not designed for it. This means the pinzes in the British army are due to be demobbed starting in a year or so, which is great for me as I want one ;-) Unfortunately it also means that the pinz is almost certainly dead as an ongoing development.
Landies are also not suitable, however they are apparently regarded as the "friendly face of the army" so will continue to be bought, althought I'm not sure what's happening about Defender production. The info I got was over a bad line during snatched calls in meeting breaks, so I want to find out if the Panthers are sufficiently landy-like to be regarded as suitable for soft duties, or whether the Defenders will carry on in light roles like staff cars and public-facing roles in non-hostile areas.
Has anyone else heard similar rumours? They do tie in with other events and rumours that I've heard over the last year or so.