Thursday, May 15, 2014

Classic Military Vehicles 06/2014

The one fact that most MV enthusiasts will know about the Lightweight Land Rover - whether or not they are fans of that particular marque - is that despite the lightweight' moniker and in terms of unladen weight, it is actually heavier than the 88in Series IIA from which it was derived. However, and here is the whole point of the Lightweight, it can conveniently shed some 550 lb (250kg) of excess weight - doors, tailgate, bumpers etc - and slim down to a mere 2660 lb (1206kg). For, in the world of the air-portable vehicle, weight is king. Air-portable military vehicles were nothing new in the sixties. During the latter stages of WW2, Jeeps and even lightweight tanks had been deployed by glider, and in the late-fifties/ early sixties the British Army had evaluated various potentially air-portable types such as the Steyr Haflinger and Austin's Mini Moke. Indeed, from 1960 the Royal Marines employed 65 stripped-down Citroën 2CV pickup trucks which were stationed on the helicopter carriers HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark anö airlifted ashore slung under Westland Whirlwind HAS7s. Nevertheless, what the Royal Marines and the Army really needed was a sturdy utility vehicle, preferably with some commonality with existing types. Therefore, in 1964 an official specification was issued calling for a lightweight version of the short-wheelbase Land Rover. Among other things, it called for a maximum overall width of 60in (1500mm) so that two vehicles could be accommodated side-by-side within the fuselage of an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy, the standard heavy-lift aircraft of the time, and an unladen weight of no more than 2500 lb (1134kg) so that it could be airlifted by a Westland Wessex HC2 helicopter.

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