Nuclear Constabulary Range Rover

The Special Escort Group (SEG) of the Ministry of Defence Police, formed in 1991 and based at AWE Aldermaston, escorts nuclear weapons convoys between the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Burghfield and the Royal Naval Armament Depot at Coulport, as well as movements of special nuclear materials. For the expansion of convoy operations that came with the Trident programme (first Trident convoy December 1994), the SEG ran a fleet of six armoured Range Rovers built from 1992 Range Rover Vogue EFi donors — stretched examples on a lengthened (110-inch) chassis. Armouring specialist S. MacNeillie & Son Limited of Walsall, a long-established converter of discreetly armoured Range Rover Classics, fitted armoured plating to all doors, heavily laminated bullet-proof glass, roof escape hatches and concealed rifle compartments beneath the front seats; the vehicles carried WASP roof modules, dual roof lights, high-intensity rear red lights and high-frequency radio equipment for convoy communications.

The Range Rovers provided close escort to the heavy-duty warhead carriers and delivered traffic control for the convoys through the 1990s until they were replaced by newer vehicles in 2001 and placed in storage. Two of the fleet, K256RKN and K327YVP, were sold at a Brightwells auction on 25 October 2023 for £33,600 and £18,592 respectively. Note on the registry name: the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, which this record's name evokes, was only established in 2005 and escorts civil nuclear material using vehicles such as Mitsubishi Shoguns and BMW X5s; the documented armoured nuclear-escort Range Rovers belonged to the MoD Police SEG, and this record describes those vehicles.