TACR1.

TACR1 - Truck, Airfield Crash Rescue, Mark 1 - was the third generation of Land Rover-based crash rescue trucks in RAF service, entering service in 1972 to supersede the earlier ACRT dry-powder and TACT foam trucks. Its job was to be first on scene: a three-man crew raced ahead of the heavy foam tenders to begin rescuing aircrew from a crashed aircraft, and between incidents the trucks escorted taxiing aircraft. The substantial front brush guard was fitted so a responding TACR1 could crash straight through airfield emergency gates without stopping.

The conversions were built by fire-appliance coachbuilder HCB-Angus of Southampton on uprated 109-inch chassis: an initial batch of 22 Series IIA vehicles on the heavy-duty 231-prefix chassis sequence with ENV axles, delivered in Mist White undercoat to the RAF at Aston Down in 1970-71, followed by Series III batches on 911-prefix chassis. Although Land Rover catalogued these as 3/4-ton vehicles, the makers' and military specification plates identify the TACR1 as a 1-ton truck. All used the 2.25-litre petrol engine. The truck carried pre-mixed AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam), an EPCO hydraulic rescue kit and a pneumatic 'ripper gun'; with only a standard cab, the third crew member sat in an exposed rear position connected to the cab by a voice tube.

TACR1s served with the RAF Fire and Rescue Service and the Royal Navy's airfields from the early 1970s until the early 1990s, including detached Harrier-site operations, and the first example delivered (28 AG 00) covered some 230 incidents in 58 days during the 1977 national firemen's strike. Around 89 were built and few survive; the Range Rover-based TACR2 began replacing them from 1977.