Bob
5th Jan 2002, 13:05
My military contribution to the February issue of LRM (in the shops from yesterday) deals with Land Rovers that are sometimes erroneously passed off as being SAS vehicles. It concentrates mainly on the MWP, MRCV and LRPV, though there are also a couple of interesting shots of the green DPVs borrowed by 16 Air Assault Brigade for a demo a couple of years back. This is a follow-on to my feature on, and photos of, genuine SAS Pink/Green Panthers and DPVs in the January issue (limited copies are still available from the LRM back issues dept. if you missed it).
In my side column this month, I also shed a little light on the white Land Rovers seen on newsreel footage shot near Mazir-e-Sharif in December and given pictorial prominence by the Sun and the Telegraph by way of an AP photo of three British personnel in what was clearly a Landy. Despite what you might have read in the Sun and elsewhere, this pair of vehicles did NOT belong to the SAS, but to a sister organisation deployed in the northern region of Afghanistan. By the way, in answer to the questions posed on page 21 of this month's LRW, the WMIKs (for that is what they were) are most certainly white, not pink, and the soft tops fitted are the standard issue WMIK inclement weather protection kits. As the initial overt British troop deployment into Afghanistan in November, consisting primarily of Royal Marines but also reportedly having an SBS detachment, flew into the cold and mountainous north of the country at the onset of winter, it is logical that their vehicles would have weather protection as standard. It also made sense to paint some of them white to look less overtly military, not to mention giving good camouflage for possible high elevation deployment.
As a Defence Advisory notice on the subject of Special Forces deployments has been issued to editors (hence the almost complete lack of speculation in the Press as to what they are up to) I cannot safely pass further comment at this stage, other than to say that my sources tell me that "British Special Forces involvement in the current campaign is the largest deployment since WWII, and it should not be assumed that they are all working in Afghanistan". One source also claims that every available DPV has been despatched overseas to meet operational requirements.
Bob
In my side column this month, I also shed a little light on the white Land Rovers seen on newsreel footage shot near Mazir-e-Sharif in December and given pictorial prominence by the Sun and the Telegraph by way of an AP photo of three British personnel in what was clearly a Landy. Despite what you might have read in the Sun and elsewhere, this pair of vehicles did NOT belong to the SAS, but to a sister organisation deployed in the northern region of Afghanistan. By the way, in answer to the questions posed on page 21 of this month's LRW, the WMIKs (for that is what they were) are most certainly white, not pink, and the soft tops fitted are the standard issue WMIK inclement weather protection kits. As the initial overt British troop deployment into Afghanistan in November, consisting primarily of Royal Marines but also reportedly having an SBS detachment, flew into the cold and mountainous north of the country at the onset of winter, it is logical that their vehicles would have weather protection as standard. It also made sense to paint some of them white to look less overtly military, not to mention giving good camouflage for possible high elevation deployment.
As a Defence Advisory notice on the subject of Special Forces deployments has been issued to editors (hence the almost complete lack of speculation in the Press as to what they are up to) I cannot safely pass further comment at this stage, other than to say that my sources tell me that "British Special Forces involvement in the current campaign is the largest deployment since WWII, and it should not be assumed that they are all working in Afghanistan". One source also claims that every available DPV has been despatched overseas to meet operational requirements.
Bob