Long Range Patrol Vehicle

The Long Range Patrol Vehicle, or LRPV, is a six-wheel-drive patrol vehicle that the Australian Special Air Service Regiment used in Afghanistan and Iraq. The regiment's first long range patrol vehicles were modified Series II Land Rovers, developed in the early 1970s and used in exercises in northern Western Australia from 1973. The LRPV itself was developed in the late 1980s from the six-wheel-drive variant of the Australian Army's Land Rover Perentie, to patrol remote regions of Australia. It is mechanically simple, relatively easy to maintain in the field and has a crew of three, with a central ring mount for an M2 Browning heavy machine gun or a Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher. It deployed to Kuwait in 1998 and first saw combat in Afghanistan from 2001, when patrols ranged hundreds of kilometres from Camp Rhino. After Sergeant Andrew Russell was killed in February 2002 when his LRPV struck a mine, the remaining vehicles were fitted with armour plating beneath the hull and shock-absorbent seats. The Bushmaster became the favoured combat vehicle in 2008, and Supacat Extenda vehicles ordered that August were meant to replace the LRPVs.