Europe's car makers are in crisis. Will the threat of war rescue them?

It's green, bulging and intimidating. Ford's latest vehicle looks like a pick-up truck that has been through an Incredible Hulk transformation. Based on its popular Ranger series, this beefy number parked outside the front door of Ford's Dagenham plant can carry a load of two tonnes, tow up to four tonnes and is also shouldering the hopes of the 2,000-strong workforce that still makes engines here.

Inside the factory, the three-litre diesel engines that will power this camo-painted beast drift down a production line that has seen output cut from 90,000 engines a year to about half that over the last decade.

Ford is hoping that a pivot towards military vehicles can help fill the void created by what the company's UK boss calls the most challenging environment since the invention of the motor car. Once mighty, the European car industry is starting to look puny and is hoping surging defence budgets as Europe re-arms can help it flex its industrial muscles once more.

Ford is part of a joint venture with defence specialists General Dynamics and Ricardo bidding for a Ministry of Defence (MoD) contract to supply 9,000 vehicles over the next five to seven years to replace the Army's ageing Land Rover-based fleet.

Lisa Brankin, chair of Ford UK, says it is a chance to showcase their abilities to respond quickly to defence needs: "As a manufacturer you look at every opportunity that comes at you and this is a great opportunity that we would love to take advantage of."

This is not the first time Ford has busied itself with defence work.

Ahead of World War Two, Ford's factory in Dagenham, east London, was the largest car plant in Europe.

When war broke out, civilian car assembly stopped completely, and the factory was converted entirely to military production. Between 1939 and 1945, the Dagenham plant built 360,000 vehicles for the Allied war effort.