Shorland SB401 APV · RAF Police

History

This record covers the operator rather than a distinct model: an enclosed Shorts APV in RAF Police markings. The vehicle type is the personnel-carrying branch of the Shorland family — SB.301, then the V8-engined SB.401 — as opposed to the turreted Mark 1 to Mark 4 Armoured Patrol Cars. Short Brothers of Belfast (Short Brothers & Harland until the 1977 renaming) built both.

The RAF Police is listed among Shorts' customers by the Shorland Site's own FAQ, which names the British Army and the RAF Police as the British military purchasers of Shorlands. Its documented role was guard-force and convoy protection rather than patrol. In RAF Germany the type was used to secure 'Special Weapons' — that is, nuclear — storage sites and to escort the transport vehicles moving warheads, a task that continued until the British Army of the Rhine was run down in the 1990s. In the United Kingdom, Bob Morrison photographed an APV in RAF Police markings at RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall in 1986, and describes the image as a very rare colour photograph of the type in that service.

The mark identification needs stating plainly, because the registry record is titled SB.401. The only dated photographic identification of an RAF Police APV found in research is Morrison's St Mawgan car, which he captions as an SB.301 — the six-cylinder, 2,625 cc first-generation APV with no powered ventilation. The SB.401 is the later Stage One V8 development, recognisable by its forward-set radiator, angular front wing armour and roof-mounted extractor cowl, and the sources consulted do not record RAF Police examples of it. The RAF Police may well have operated both generations, since its APVs remained in use into the 1990s and the SB.401 was available from around 1980, but no source consulted establishes that, and the drivetrain and body details for an RAF Police SB.401 are therefore not asserted here.

No published figures give how many APVs the RAF Police took, when they were delivered, or what livery they wore; Shorts' 1990 production figures are broken down only by turreted mark. The RAF Police's own APV fleet does not appear in Wikipedia's Shorland operator table, which lists the United Kingdom without a quantity or a service breakdown. This record is held at draft status until an RAF Police SB.401 can be documented directly.

Registry record

Manufacturer

Short Brothers ↗

Belfast (Short Brothers & Harland Ltd before the 1977 renaming)

Manufactured

RAF Police APV service documented 1986 (RAF St Mawgan) and into the 1990s in RAF Germany; delivery dates not established

Modifier / coachbuilder

Short Brothers ↗

Shorland armoured vehicle division

Engine type

Not established for RAF Police vehicles. The SB.301 used the Rover 2,625 cc six-cylinder petrol; the SB.401 used the 3.5-litre Rover V8 on a Stage One Series III chassis.

Production run

Not published; no RAF Police APV quantity is recorded in any source consulted

Country of origin

United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

Status

withdrawn; RAF Germany use ended with the BAOR drawdown in the 1990s

Catalogue data

Record kind

Named model

Model line

Series III

Wheels

4

Nominal wheelbase

109″

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Sources & citations

Researched sources

• MLR26 — Short Brothers APV and Otokar ZPT ↗ — Joint Forces News (Bob Morrison) (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Shorland FAQ ↗ — The Shorland Site (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Shorland SB401 ↗ — The Shorland Site (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Shorland armoured car (Cold War UK wheeled AFVs) ↗ — Tanks Encyclopedia / tank-afv.com (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Shorland armoured car ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)

Catalogue references

• https://www.joint-forces.com/utility-4x4/28162-short-brothers-apv-and-otokar-zpt https://www.joint-forces.com/utility-4x4/28162-short-brothers-apv-and-otokar-zpt ↗