HKPF EOD Defender 130 6×6
The Hong Kong Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau's three-axle Defender 130, AM 6788: a 6×6 crew cab carrying a tall white box body in the force's white livery with red wings, a red waist band edged in blue, bilingual POLICE and BOMB DISPOSAL lettering, a bonnet spare, a roof rack and a red-and-blue bar over the cab.
History
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau is the Hong Kong Police Force's bomb squad: set up in 1972 with British Army expertise, wholly staffed by Hong Kong officers from 1993, and today a stand-alone unit of the Operations and Support Wing that deals with everything from wartime ordnance dug up on building sites to improvised devices, underwater disposal and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents, as well as training the rest of the force and inspecting explosives stores. Its vehicles have to carry a great deal — protective suits, robots, tools, containment equipment — which is how a Land Rover came to be stretched to three axles.
AM 6788 is that vehicle: a Defender 130 converted to six-wheel drive with a driven bogie of two rear axles, retaining the four-door crew cab and carrying behind it a box body wider and taller than the cab, with a roof rack above it. It wears the force's standard livery of the period — white with red front wings and a red band edged in blue along the waist — with 警 POLICE 察 on the cab doors and the box side, BOMB DISPOSAL and 爆炸品處理 lettered beneath, a mirrored POLICE on the bonnet for the benefit of rear-view mirrors, a spare wheel on the bonnet, a winch in the front bumper, blue lamps at the bumper ends, a red-and-blue light bar and an air-conditioning pod on the cab roof, and the unit's '4 EOD' callsign plate on the bumper. The reference photograph was taken by Daryl Chapman on a Hong Kong highway on 9 September 2010. Who carried out the six-wheel conversion, and whether the Bureau ran more than one such vehicle, is not stated in the sources consulted.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Defender 130 donor); six-wheel conversion by an unrecorded converter
- Manufactured
- Defender 130; photographed in service September 2010, build date not recorded
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Unrecorded six-wheel-drive converter
- Engine type
- Not recorded in the source (Defender 130 Td5 or Puma era by appearance)
- Production run
- Unknown — one vehicle documented
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- Hong Kong
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 6
- Nominal wheelbase
- 130″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Land Rover, Defender, 130, 6x6, AM 6788, Hong Kong Police – Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau (photograph, 9 September 2010) ↗ — Daryl Chapman Photography (Flickr) (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Bomb Disposal Vehicle and Bomb Suit in the 1970s — Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau set up in 1972 by a British Army expert ↗ — Hong Kong Police Museum (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Meet the heroes defusing WWII bombs in Hong Kong — EOD Bureau founded 1972, fully staffed by Hong Kong officers from 1993; land, underwater and CBRN responsibilities ↗ — China Daily Hong Kong (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/darylchapman/4975627118 https://www.flickr.com/photos/darylchapman/4975627118 ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T05:37:06.150Z · status: researched