On patrol with the Pink Panther

Jan 5 2009 Ian Johnson

IN THE world of 4x4 vehicles there is a Holy Grail.

The chances of actually seeing it in its working environment are extremely low. If you did you would probably be in grave danger. And the chances of driving one are next to impossible.

I'm talking about that warhorse of the SAS, the Land Rover Long Range Desert Patrol Vehicle.

Cabable of covering vast distances across the desert and accommodating a team of specialists with all their equipment and armament, these vehicles, known affectionately as Pink Panthers - because of the original pinky beige paint used to make them difficult to spot in their natural environment - are rare outside the regiment's headquarters at Hereford.

But one has slipped through the net and is now back with Land Rover.

It is officially known as a Truck Utility Medium Special Forces and this one retired from SAS operations in 2005 after seeing service which started in the 1980s including action in both Gulf Wars.

It is like no other Land Rover, being stripped down with massive roll-over bars, no doors, smoke candle dischargers, the ability to be heavily armed and carrying massive amounts of extra fuel and metal tracks to get out of trouble, it really does look a real scrapper of a vehicle. It is totally original and when I drove it I felt that it could tell some interesting tales.

Many have mocked up Land Rovers to make them look the part, but this one, with its worn, sun-baked paint, pen and pencil markings indicating the functions of some dark and mysterious switchgear and that acrid smell of hard work just said it all.

After getting the nod to drive it from Land Rover heritage boss Roger Crathorne I set off across a country park at a cracking pace thanks to the pure grunt of it 3.5-litre V8 petrol engine. No diesel here, just pure petrol power for speed. It has coil springs for a decent ride and has a very low profile. It certainly turned some heads in the ranks of the country ramblers who were not quite sure what was going on.

There is no windscreen - just a bit of metal plate you can duck your head behind if bullets start to fly.

The Special Air Service Regiment is one of the most famous units in the British Army, though it is one of the youngest, dating back to 1941.

Yet it is a regiment which few know anything about, being manned by specialists in many fields.

It has a history of almost continuous combat action of one kind or another. By the nature of its activities since the Second World War, all sorts of legends have grown up - some of them false - about what it actually does.

In essence, the function of the SAS has not changed greatly since it was established. It is a small, highly mobile, highly trained force able to carry out surveillance, reconnaissance or attack missions.

SAS DPVs had mounts for an array of weapons and they were configured in a number of ways with various mountings for General Purpose Machine Guns (gympies in Army speak.)

The vehicle could also carry a 40mm grenade launcher or a Milan wire-guided missile launcher for a heavy punch.

It has also been reported that the SAS experimented with other weapons systems for the DPV. These include a 7.62mm gatling gun which was highly effective.

A trooper could also have access to 84mm anti-tank rockets, M72 66mm rockets, Stinger surface to air missiles, 81mm mortars and bar mines (large slabs of exposives capable of flipping a tank over). And these are just the items we know about. What secret weapons these vehicles carried is open to the imagination.

In action these vehicles often had their headlights and brake lights removed or disconnected to avoid accidental illumination at night.

They could be transported into combat two at a time by Chinook helicopters and C130 Hercules transport planes, which could muster four vehicles.

They were deployed to Saudi Arabia and driven north into the Iraqi Desert during Desert Storm by A and D Squadron SAS.

DPVs were also spotted by TV news crews operating in Sierra Leone, whilst the SAS were carrying out fact-finding missions in support of the UN.

And in more recent times they have been playing a vital role in the conflict in Afghanistan. One operation saw them being used in an attack on a large opium storage facility.

After a long and distinguished history with the Special Air Service, the Land Rover is being replaced in the long range patrol/strike role by the HMT 400 known as the Supacat - still made in Britain at a factory in Devon.

But the Land Rover Desert Patrol Vehicle has earned its stripes as a national hero. If any Army vehicle deserves a medal this one does.