Military Rover
The Military Land Rover Pages
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Military Rover |
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Brief History
This is a very brief history of the Lightweight, and just covers the basic details as I couldn't be bothered typing it all out, anyhow anyone interested enough to read this probably knows most of the story already!!
So here goes....Once upon a time way back in the early 60s the MoD (or War Department as it was then) decided that there was a need for a lightweight air transportable vehicle (well you would too if one of your elite fighting forces, the Royal Marines, was going into battle with stripped down 2CVs!!). So they came up with required specification and put it out to tender and waited to see what turned up.
At the time Land Rover were suppling the War Dept. with a military spec 88" Land Rover but unfortunately this was too heavy and too big to fit the requirements but with a bit of modification the boffins at Land Rover thought they might come up with something which would do the job just fine, so with a bit of bashing, cutting and hammering the prototype Lightweight was born! Anyhow whilst it didn't quite fit the requirements exactly it didn't matter to much as air transport had moved on with more powerful helicopters and the C130 Hercules was coming on the scene so size was not much of a problem now and the military were obviously impressed with it, so production did commence.
The MoD placed its first orders in the middle of 1967 and production began at the end of the year though only just and only a couple of vehicles were completed and it wasn't until 1968 that production got into full swing. The first Lightweights were Series IIAs or Rover 1s to the military. The first vehicles entered service around the end of 1968, beginning of 1969. The Rover 1 was produced until 1972 when the SIII Lightweight came about, this was basically the same as the IIA but with one or two differences, it had an all synchro gearbox, slightly different dash, lights in the wings (though most of the IIAs probably did also) and most likely various other small changes which I can't recall at the moment!
The Series III Lightweight was produced until 1984 and was finally phased out of service by the end of the Nineties and so ended the story of the best Land Rover of 'em all (in my eyes anyhow...but don't ask me if I fancy swopping mine for a XD90 Wolf as I might have a bit of a dilemma!!). The Lightweight served with all branches of the UK forces, Army, RAF and Navy and was used by the military of many other countries like the Dutch, Danes, Saudis and lots more in its various guises (ie Santana, Militar etc). It saw action in the Northern Ireland, The Falklands, The Gulf and served with distinction all over world as well as home duties in and around the UK.
So ends my brief and basic history of the Lightweight Land Rover, please don't take it as the definitive gospel truth as it might not be, as most of it came from memory, so it could be a little cloudy on some of the details. If anyone seriously wants to know the proper history of the Lightweight Land Rover I would recommend getting hold of a copy of Mark Cooks book 'The Half Ton Military Land Rover' it's an excellent book, crammed full with loads of Lightweight Land Rover pictures and has everything you ever wanted or need to know about Lightweight Land Rovers, very highly recommended!!