Calibre interview: Gareth Reece, MD of Fering

Between 1940 and 1943 the UK’s SAS and Long-Range Desert Group traveled hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines conducting small raids against air bases and ports, and identifying enemy movements on the few roads that cut across the immense expanses of North Africa. Their success rested on Jeeps and trucks and iconic images of these vehicles showed them weighed down with jerry cans of fuel and water; any spare space was taken up by weapons and ammunition. These operations and heavily armed vehicles set the groundwork for special forces around the world in the wake of World War 2. Until this year, the pattern remained relatively unchanged. Small, light vehicles, often based on civilian chassis, brimming with machine guns, grenade launchers and soldiers are used by special forces for reconnaissance and patrols. Like their forebears in North Africa, they have to carry as much fuel and water as they can, limiting space for the other essentials, and testing their endurance for eight to ten days. In January 2025, however, the British company Fering unveiled the Pioneer X, a special forces vehicle with a potential driving range of 7,000 km from a single fuel tank and a hefty 60 kW of power that can be off-boarded. Calibre met with Fering during this year’s International Armoured Vehicles conference in Farnborough, and sat down with Gareth Reece, who will soon become the managing director of Fering, to learn more about the new company and its route to market. 

The time is right

Fering was founded in 2019 by Ben Scott-Gedes, having worked at Ferrari until 2018, Caparo Vehicle Technologies from 2006 – 2013, and McLaren before that. He specialises in lightweight composite materials and their use in vehicle design. “While you and I were at home trying to adjust to lockdowns during COVID, Ben was in his back garden designing the Pioneer,” Reece explained. “It was meant to be an expeditionary vehicle with a huge range and low emissions providing the ability to explore the world effectively,” he added. “Meet the electrified British 4×4 set to take on the world,” trade news outlets covering electric vehicles reported, when the vehicle first made its public debut. The move to offer the vehicle to the defence industry came as a result of the vehicle’s initial launch and its capabilities. 

“This is partly because of the logistics element, think of the cost of transporting fuel into Afghanistan, you can understand why people would want something with hypermobility and range. You might only have to refuel three times per year,” Reece said. US Department of Defense estimates indicate that getting a gallon of fuel to operating bases in Afghanistan could cost as much as $400, when the fully burdened costs were considered. In 2008, the US Army deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan required approximately 68 million US gallons of fuel per month – this is around 257 million litres. So, the amount of fuel required for military operations are significant and result in a considerable burden on the logistics infrastructure of a deployed force, this is potentially exacerbated by the nature of special forces and reconnaissance operations which might necessarily push forces to extreme distances, requiring resupply by helicopter. 

Interest from the special forces community drove development of the original Pioneer to the Pioneer X, the version presented by Fering at IAV 2025. However, the company sees utility far beyond the relatively niche role of special forces and reconnaissance, “there are three main markets that we are looking at, but the defence side allows trickle down effects,” Reece explained. “The time is right for that move to EV with range extension. With the aging Land Rover and Hilux vehicles, we are at the crossing point from old technology to the new. We’ve already had some good feedback from the [British Army’s] Light Mobility Vehicle programme,” he added, indicating the potential future for the platform. 

“There is also the utility market, so we are in discussions with one of the largest conservancies in Africa, where your standard Toyota won’t cover the distances involved. Then there’s ranches and solar farms and that sort of thing as well. We are also considering a consumer element, we have a small release – around 20 vehicles – that people will be able to buy,” Reece said. Dual-use technologies – those systems that can be used in both the civilian/commercial world, and defence – are now common in the defence industry. This is because a defence system has a necessarily limited user base, it is not possible to sell a new Leopard 2 tank to a civilian or oil company looking to conduct pipe inspections, for example. This means that if governments are not spending money on defence, smaller companies will struggle to survive. Building products that will find customers in all three areas helps build resilience into a company, increasing appeal to investors and governments in the process. 

“There’s around 35 to 40 of us in the company now, and it’s still privately owned by Ben, with an equity share amongst some of the others in the company. We got started through some initial funding that was provided by an entity outside of the UK,” Reece said, explaining the company’s journey to the current day. The vehicles are in the pre-production phase for all three markets, with plenty of interest around the world following the Pioneer X’s release in January, he added. 

Fering and user demands

The Pioneer X is built to meet some very specific and demanding requirements. As noted by some observers, the vehicle does not carry any armour or blast protection. “People have misaligned the nature of the Ukrainian battlespace with the purpose of the Pioneer,” Reece explained, “Special forces rely on speed, surprise, and maximum firepower. This often means that armour is the first thing to go, they need something that can get in quickly and so that they can mount decent amounts of firepower on the vehicle and get into and out of their objective,” he said. Reece himself spent 14 years in the British Army serving with the Parachute Regiment before transferring to become a helicopter pilot for the second half of his career. 

This is an important point to note, as the battlespace in Ukraine is unique in that it is relatively static providing predictable routes and areas for vehicles to move through, and be found in. One example of what this breeds is a recent video posted by a Russian account on Telegram, which showed fishing nets deployed over a portion of a road, designed to catch FPVs and prevent them from hitting vehicles and their crews. This is only possible because of how few routes there are to cross terrain in Ukraine, and because it is possible to watch most of that terrain all of the time. In other scenarios, where a vehicle or section of vehicles could approach from any direction and where sensors are in short supply, special forces can expect to range much more freely, with speed and firepower providing protection. It’s also important to note, that there are many activities undertaken by special forces units that are never reported on, and where this type of vehicle is the only real option. “They have a completely different risk appetite to conventional armed forces,” Reece said. 

That is not to say that the Pioneer X cannot carry armour, however. “If the client wants armour, we can deliver that. We had to enter the market somewhere, and the hypothesis was that if we could gain traction at the tier 1 operator level then it would provide a trickle down effect. The range, the power, the mobility, all are key requirements for those customers,” Reece said. Indeed, the Pioneer X has a kerb weight of 1,600 kg and is able to carry just over 1,500 kg in additional payload, which provides ample room for armour kits to be fitted, but this would likely impact the range and trafficability (the ability of the vehicle to cross terrain) of the base platform. 

So, what do special forces operators require? One thing is certainly stowage space. “The open architecture of the Pioneer X allows stores to be housed in dead space. For a standard 8-10 day patrol, we can store all of the equipment necessary for that patrol in the frame of the vehicle, which leaves the space on the flatbed free for other systems, be that casualties, drones, or a counter-drone system. If you look at other vehicles in the class, everything will be hanging off the sides,” Reece said. 

Carrying equipment is not the only challenge for this type of operation, another is resupply. Resupply is probably one moment in which special forces operators become very vulnerable. They might be awaiting a large helicopter like a CH-47 to meet them with additional fuel, water, and ammunition. When the helicopter lands, the normal procedure is for the soldiers to ferry supplies back and forth, working to find space on their vehicle as quickly as possible, limiting the time that the helicopter spends on the ground. To help address this element of long-range patrols and operations, Fering is developing the MSLMS – mission specific modular loading system. “Imagine a capsule pre-loaded with everything that the operators need. So, the guys could call for whatever pod it is they need, which would  then be taken out by the CH-47 and the vehicle crew could load them onto the vehicle using a hoist,” Reece explained. The aim is for the whole process to be completed in a few minutes, allowing the helicopter to leave the airspace quickly and the vehicle crews to replenish their stocks and move away in as little time as possible. 

“We’re also looking at wider partnerships, especially in the C4ISR space to bring in the equipment needed by JTACs (Joint Terminal Air Controller) and we are also partnering with drone companies,” Reece explained. “We want drones to be integrated onto the platform,” he said. In the next year, the company will have developed an autonomous variant of the Pioneer X that can travel off-road for 50 km, either to conduct a casualty evacuation or to move supplies, he added. 

“We’re also looking to help users understand the potential of the vehicle. The batteries can be dismounted, for example, and used to power a command post. Or, two vehicles can be used to run a field hospital for two weeks,” Reece said. Fering is also looking at exchanging some of the vehicle’s fuel capacity for a fresh water supply, reducing the range but potentially increasing the autonomy of a patrol using the vehicles. Other developments in the near future will include a signature management skin for the Pioneer, which a crew of two can change in an hour if required. There are certainly many developments in the new future for the Pioneer and for Fering, perhaps armed forces will now feel ready to embrace new technologies and new ways of working. 

Calibre comment

The range and mobility of the Pioneer X are defining features, however the power element is one that deserves much more attention than it is given. As noted by Reece, the vehicle’s batteries and generator can be used to power a field hospital or command post, or support a counter-drone system. Power is arguably key for reconnaissance elements that must deploy radars, JTAC controllers, drones, and SIGINT sensors to build a picture of an adversary. This is probably the main differentiator from the modern day special forces patrol, and those of the Long-Range Desert Group. While British soldiers in North Africa relied on sun compasses for navigation, and binoculars to observe their opponents; modern armed forces must be able to communicate via satellite and radio as necessary, deploy drones, and detect targets in different aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum. They then have to pass that information to a command post, in near real-time if possible. If they are unable to do this effectively because they have run out of power, their value will rapidly diminish. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 12th March, 2025.