Land Rover 1/2 ton Lightweight

The Land Rover 1/2 ton Lightweight, widely known as the Lightweight or the Airportable, was a British military version of the Land Rover Series IIA and later the Series III, built between November 1968 and 1984 for the British Army and Royal Marines. The services wanted a vehicle that a Westland Wessex helicopter could carry slung underneath, so Land Rover made many body parts easy to detach, allowed the tilt, doors and windscreen to be removed for lifting, and narrowed the axles by about 100 millimetres so the vehicle fitted a standard pallet. The name is relative: the complete 24 volt radio-fitted Series IIA version weighed 1,510 kilograms. In practice most were moved by cargo aircraft or on railway wagons rather than by helicopter. It used the Rover 2.25 litre four cylinder engine in petrol or diesel form, was supplied to more than twenty countries including left hand drive versions for NATO service, and 37,897 were built.