Special forces 6×6

History

The Long Range Patrol Vehicle is the open-bodied 6×6 Outback built exclusively for Australia's Special Air Service Regiment - 27 were produced, and they carried SASR patrols through Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq before retirement in the early 2010s.

In the late 1980s a specialised variant of the 6×6 - catalogued as 'Truck, Long Range Patrol, Light, Winch, MC2' - was developed to replace the SASR's ageing Gen 2A-based long range patrol vehicles for patrolling remote regions of Australia. The Outback variant table records 27 LRPVs built, with press reports counting 28-30 including two prototypes; 6×6 deliveries began in 1989. The type's defining service came overseas. The fleet also served in Iraq in 2003 during Operation Falconer. The vehicles' vulnerability to mines was shown in February 2002 when Sergeant Andrew Russell was killed by a mine strike - Australia's first fatality of the Afghanistan war - after which a Survival Enhancement Kit added belly armour and shock-absorbing seats; Tenix Defence overhauled the fleet again in 2005.