I hear ya, in that case I'll draw up a civilian based template, and change the name of the current one in the article to reflect it's military usage.
I do feel it's best to keep rival, but I placed it as an optional - meaning the writer of the article can either includ it as a seperate piece or he can includ those details in the actual history itself. In short, the writer should 'not' be penalized for going one way or the other, this way there people whom may want the rival seperately can have it their way, or those who'd prefer to includ said details in the vehicles history can do it that way as well.