Australian 🇦🇺 Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldiers taking a rest in the shade of their Land Rover Perentie Long Range Patrol Vehicle (LRPV)
The LRPV was first deployed to Kuwait in 1998 for Operation Desert Thunder, and first saw combat as part of the Australian contribution to the War in Afghanistan, Operation Slipper and later in Iraq in Operation Falconer.
The SASR’s 1 Squadron arrived in Afghanistan in November 2001, and rapidly sent LRPV-mounted patrols hundreds of kilometers from their base at Camp Rhino. In his history of the SASR’s early operations in Afghanistan, journalist Ian McPhedran wrote that the “Australian-designed LRPVs would prove ideal in the harsh Afghan environment, as they could stay on patrol for weeks on end without needing to return to base”.
The LRPV served with distinction until it was replaced by the Supacat HMT vehicles and ADI Bushmasters starting in 2008-2012.