Shorland armoured car
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| Shorland Internal Security Vehicle Mk 3 | |
|---|---|
| General characteristics | |
| Crew | 3 |
| Length | 4.597 |
| Width | 1.778 |
| Height | 2.286 |
| Weight | 3.36 |
| Armour and armament | |
| Armour | |
| Main armament | 7.62 machine gun |
| Secondary armament | |
| Mobility | |
| Power plant | Rover petrol 91 hp (68 kW) |
| Suspension | 4 X 4 |
| Road speed | 88 |
| Power/weight | |
| Range | 260/510 |
 External images |
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|---|---|
| Museum display[1] |
The Shorland is an armoured car that was designed specifically for the Royal Ulster Constabulary by a police support officer Ernie Lusty during the sixities for patrolling the border to prevent orgainsed smuggling. Despite the strength of the original design the use of the Shorland armoured patrol car on the streets of the Northern Ireland, away from the border area was seen as being provacative in those days and they were reallocated to the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1970. The Royal Ulster Constabulary however soon repalced the Shorland with an armoured Land Rover with more conventional profiles and no machinegun turret.
This being the original Shorland Armoured Car, which quickly became know in Land Rover Circles as the boat tail Shorland.
The vehicles were built by Short Brothers and Harland of Belfast using a chassis from a Series twoLand Rover, from which the name was derived.
Contrary to popular belief, very few of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Armoured Land Rover Fleet which at its peak was in the region of 450 Land Rovers were actually built by Shorts and Harland in Belfast. in the early days the Hotspur, built in wales formed the basis of the fleet.
By the nineties the Land Rover Tangi, designed and built by the Royal Ulster Constabulary's own vehicle engineering team, was by far the most common model.
Shorts and Harland continued to develop the original Boat tail Shorland from a armoured partol car with a crew of 3 to armoured personnel vehicle, capable of carrying two up front and six in the rearand a small number of these were used on the streets in Northern Ireland as late as 1998.
Contents |
[edit] Design
The Shorland is a long wheelbase Land Rover with the turret of a Mk 2 Ferret armoured car. The vehicle has upgraded suspension to deal with the extra weight of the armour.
[edit] Variants
[edit] Mk 1
- 67 bhp (50 kW) engine
[edit] Mk 2
- 77 bhp (57 kW) engine
[edit] Mk 3
- 91 bhp (68 kW) engine
- Thicker armour than Mk 1, Mk 2
[edit] Mk 4
- 3.5 litre engine
- Improved armour over Mk 3
[edit] Short MB501
Welded armour fully enclosed body, no turret.
