Land Rover Ranger S.O.V. The No Nonsense Military Defender Armed to the Teeth

But every once in a while, something comes along from overseas that the yanks don't mind supplementing their arsenal with. The most famous example of this is probably the Harrier jump-jet. But the American Spitfire and Canberra Bomber also deserve mention. Nowadays, this spirit of cooperation is most prominent with a unique Land Rover Variant that even the Americans were left nothing but impressed by.

Say hello to the Ranger Special Operations Vehicle, the name rolls right of the tongue, doesn't it? Well, don't roll your eyes at it too much just yet. There's more than enough to like with this Anglo-American 4x4 for the military. Its purpose since the early 1990s has been as a direct replacement to the M151 utility Jeep of Vietnam War vintage. Ostensibly, the very last in a line of Jeeps dating back to the Second World War.

Legend has it that the Americans were awe-inspired by the Classic Defender's rugged simplicity and borderline uncanny work-ability in spite of usually being unarmed and un-armored. While their fully mine-resistant MRAP Humvees struggled across the sandy terrain of the gulf war, Land Rovers skipped along like mountain goats. It was a quality that stuck with American forces after the war.

The Ranger was manufactured by a combination of Land Rover themselves as well as the Turkish automaker Otokar. As you'll come to find, it has all the rugged disposition of a proper military land rover with enough flexibility to fill a multitude of different roles. Allow us to lay them out for you.

The U.S Army Rangers chartered an order of the Land Rover Defender-based tactical transportation vehicles in 1992. Predating the rollout of the current generation Defender XD Wolf 4x4s in by two full years. Further orders would come from the armies of the Czech Republic and Portugal at later points.

Under the hood of this purpose-built weapon of war is a Land Rover Four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine. Apart from the occasional catastrophic timing belt failure, this engine was more or less beloved by many of the men and women who drove. Being next to silent while on patrol added a stealth element to its design most vehicles of its time lack, even now.

The Ranger is oriented around a crew of three at most. A truck commander (TC), seated front-left, a driver, and a top gunner, in the rear. Modifications to this layout include seating arrangements made for an antitank operator, radiotelephone operator, or a dismount team. It's here that the most obvious difference between the Ranger and the standard Defender Wolf, it has the capability right from the factory with mounting points for defensive weaponry.

The weapons in question come in the form of an M249 belt-fed automatic machine gun chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO cartridges. There's also room for a soldier armed with an M203 grenade launcher or a rifleman. Some British officers from the period site the Ranger as the major impetus behind the development of the Wold Project, as their aging fleet of 90 and 110 Land Rovers were starting to get pretty worse for wear by the mid-90s.

Fancy dropping a Ranger from an aircraft or a helicopter? Not a problem, as it can fit cozily inside the cargo bay of everything from a C-130 cargo plane to the gargantuan C-141 Starlifter, at least before its retirement in 2006. Rangers would line up single file in the C-130 as opposed to side by side in the C-141. Dropping a Ranger from a heavy helicopter like the Sikorsky Super Stallion is also not out of the question.

Thirteen examples in use by the Portuguese Army Commando are equipped with a blast protectant armored undercarriage for protection against improvised explosives (IEDs) and equipped with an M2 Browning 50. caliber machine gun, three Heckler & Koch MG4s, one Carl Gustaf, and one 60mm mortar launcher. It made for a combination of firepower and dependability that became a symbol of Anglo-American cooperation throughout the world.

Alongside mobile weapons platform models, each U.S Army ranger unite operates a special medical evacuation unit christened the Medical Special Operations Vehicle (MEDSOV). Instead of mounts for machine guns, there's space for multiple wounded in the back in a single trip. A mobile command center and communications array are also in service with both the British and the Americans.

So then, after seeing the wet noodle of an un-armored Wolf and the controversial, supposedly "mine-resistant" Snatch Land Rover, it makes perfect sense that a little sprinkling of "Murcia" power in the form of high powered machine guns makes for a 4x4 just as intimidating as any Humvee.