The military credentials of the Toyota Hilux, and Toyota trucks more generally (the larger pickup variant of the Toyota Land Cruiser is easily mistaken for a Hilux), are certainly strong. They are easily converted into a 'technical' - a type of military vehicle that is formed by converting a civilian vehicle for miliary use. The use of Toyota trucks for war was probably most famous in 1987 during the final phase of the Chadain-Lybian conflict (1978-1987), which is sometimes called the Toyota War owing to Chad's use of the Toyota Hilux and Toyota Land Cruiser to support their infantry to great effect. Toyota trucks have been favoured for decades by many North African militaries as well as in other desert regions, notably Afghanistan and Yemen.

The prominence of Toyota in low budget militaries has its origins in the Korean War. During the war, the US contracted the production of the Willys Jeep to Toyota, in part because Toyota had produced a remarkably similar (reverse engineered) vehicle for Japan during WW2 called the AK10. Toyota had devoted significant factory space and staff to the production of this variety of light off-road vehicle, so they decided to adapt it for the civilian market. Toyota saw a civilian version of the light military vehicle as their opportunity to compete with the British car manufacturer Land Rover. To drive the point home, this civilian jeep was named the Land Cruiser and it was advertised with publicity stunts such as driving it up Mt Fuji, and it quickly became popular with Japanese emergency services with police car and fire engine variants in production by the end of the 1950s. Although later versions of the Land Cruiser looked less and less like the Willys Jeep it started as, it retained a focus on mechanical simplicity and reliability. The Toyota Land Cruiser started life as a military vehicle, so the civilian versions have always had strong potential to be converted back into military vehicles.

The Hilux is a bit more complicated because it had no military background to start with. When it was launched in 1968 it was a bit of a mess, and underwent several major redesigns, some of which dropped the Hilux name to try and give the vehicle a fresh start. Because Toyota already had a reputation for making trucks with military potential, the Hilux became the backup option when Land Cruisers were hard to get. This was helped by Toyota themselves, who gradually made the Hilux more like the pickup version of the Land Cruiser. By the late-70s, the Hilux was little more than a cheaper, slightly smaller version of the Land Cruiser pickup variant. Due to its low price, reliability, and ease of repair, the vehicle sold well in markets with challenging roads - namely large chunks of Africa and the Middle East. Land Rover also had this reputation, and in low budget wars of the 1960s and early-70s the Land Rover was very prominent, but that changed. Land Rover had serious manufacturing issues starting in the late-70s well into the 80s - anyone who has owned a Land Rover from that period can tell you that they were not well made - so the Hilux gained popularity even with low budget militaries that had previously preferred modified Land Rovers. A 1980s Hilux, on the other hand, will keep going no matter what and became the AK-47 of trucks, as was famously demonstrated in 2006 when the British show Top Gear put a 1988 Hilux through a gauntlet of punishing challenges that it largely survived. While many other manufacturers of off-road vehicles make trucks comparable to the Hilux and Land Cruiser, none have the reputation for reliability needed to sell in markets with challenging roads. Sure, Ford and Nissan did and do sell trucks in the Middle East and Africa (the Ford Ranger is also quite popular for conversion into technicals), but they are mainly designed for the North American market and don't deal well with sand compared to the Hilux. In sandy countries, the Hilux is king. Other vehicles ripe for conversion into technicals have to overcome Toyota's reputation; converting a Toyota into a technical is tried and tested, while converting rarer vehicles is a risk. This means that when a military with a low budget needs to find some light vehicles in a hurry, the Hilux is usually what is on hand and what is preferred by army engineers who lack experience converting other vehicles.

It's not just that Toyota has historically made reliable trucks with pre-existing military pedigree, it also makes trucks that are very easy to convert into other things. Toyota has always been good at this, and continues to be. The Hilux and Land Cruiser are used for Arctic and Antarctic exploration, as camera vehicles, by emergency services etc. It was almost trivial to mount substantial military hardware onto the back without affecting the performance or reliability of the vehicle. 50. cal machine guns, anti-air systems, anti-tank systems, grenade launchers, you name it and there will be some variety of it that can fit on the Hilux's flatbed.

The power of these factors were demonstrated to astonishing effect in 1987 during the Toyota War, the aforementioned final phase of the Chadian-Libyan Conflict. When Hissene Habre became leader of Chad in 1983, Muammar Gaddafi supported a small military rebellion by a group calling itself the Transnational Government of National Unity (GUNT) and occupied northern Chad. GUNT were not keen on Gaddafi and rebelled against him as well in 1986. Habre used this opportunity to launch an new offensive against Libyan forces occupying northern Chad. However, because the rebellion was rather sudden, Chad's military needed to mechanise very quickly. Rather than rely on vehicles from France or the US that could take weeks to train to use, they converted Toyota Land Cruisers and Toyota Hilux's into technicals, mounting western anti-tank weapons onto them. These were sent into battle against the T-62 and T-55 tanks favoured by Libya at the time. The result at the Battle of Fada was a catastrophe for Libya. The turrets of the Soviet tanks struggled to keep up with the high mobility and small size of the Toyota trucks so it was almost impossible for Libyan forces to hit them, and the armour of the tanks was no match for the MILAN anti-tank system many of the Toyotas were carrying. Only three Toyotas were lost in the Battle of Fada, while Libya lost nearly 100 of its tanks. Columns of technicals could raid deep into enemy territory and leave before any tank could lumber its way to the technical column and counterattack, or could support infantry in more conventional combat. Libya did get its act together and did inflict defeats on Chad to bring the war to a close, but the Battle of Fada was highly influential. By the end of the war the Hilux's reputation was absolutely untouchable. For warfare on a budget in an open, desert environment where the enemy lacked air power, why buy a tank when a dozen Toyota technicals could be built for the same price? The Battle of Fada was the first time technicals formed the backbone of a military, and the stunning result ensured that it defined regional military doctrine regarding the use of technicals ever since.

Finally, because the Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser have this long history of military use, a design rooted in military light vehicles, and are easy to convert into technicals, there are companies that will manufacture militarised Toyota vehicles. Toyota themselves do not sell to armies, and have publicly stated that they are unhappy with how the Hilux has become so prevalent in warfare. But Toyota has no control over the second hand market.

So to sum up, the Toyota Hilux is the platform of choice for technicals for several reasons. Firstly, Toyota's trucks have their roots in military vehicles dating back to the Korean War and have retained their reputation for reliability and mechanical simplicity while rivals like Land Rover went through periods of losing that reputation, which in turn led to Toyota rising to the top over other options. Combined with ease of conversion, cheap cost, and popularity in the civilian market, it became the obvious choice for an impromptu light military vehicle in militaries with a low budget operating in challenging environments.