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Named model · Series IIA · 1965–c. 1980 (Mk1–Mk3; later marks continued into the 1990s)

Shorland Armoured Patrol

The Shorland Armoured Patrol Car was a turreted armoured car built by Short Brothers & Harland of Belfast on the long-wheelbase (109 in) Land Rover Series IIA chassis, developed for the Royal Ulster Constabulary and first delivered in 1966. More than 1,000 Shorlands of all marks were eventually built, with the early Mk1–Mk3 versions exported to police and military forces worldwide.

Special · PoliceMilitary · UK
Shorland Armoured Patrol — front three-quarter render

Factory colours

Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.

History

The Shorland was conceived in the early 1960s after the Royal Ulster Constabulary asked for a vehicle suited to security duties and border patrols in Northern Ireland. Designed by Frederick Butler, with the first design meeting held in November 1961, the vehicle was developed by Short Brothers & Harland Ltd of Belfast — the aircraft manufacturer formed in 1947 when Short Brothers (Rochester and Bedford) Ltd merged with Short & Harland Ltd, the Belfast factory established in 1936 and half-owned by shipbuilder Harland & Wolff; the company reverted to the name Short Brothers in 1977. The third and final prototype was completed in 1964, production began in late 1965, and the first vehicle entered RUC service on 30 March 1966 wearing a civilian Belfast registration.

The design mated an armoured hull and a machine-gun turret to the 109-inch long-wheelbase Land Rover Series IIA chassis, fitted with heavy-duty axles and uprated suspension to carry the extra weight. The Mk1 carried armour plate 7.25 mm thick (Brinell hardness 363), and its rotating turret — similar in appearance to that of the Ferret Mk2 scout car — typically mounted a .30 in Browning machine gun. The crew was three. Around 100 Mk1s were built, powered by the Rover 2,286 cc four-cylinder petrol engine; the Mk2 (roughly 50 built) brought thicker 8.25 mm armour and a more powerful version of the four-cylinder engine, while the Mk3, introduced in 1972, used the 2.6-litre Rover six-cylinder petrol engine of 91 bhp and accounted for over 500 vehicles.

The Shorland became one of the most recognisable vehicles of the early Troubles. RUC Shorlands, painted emerald green, were deployed during the August 1969 riots in Belfast, where machine-gun fire from the vehicles proved highly controversial: nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, killed by Shorland machine-gun fire, was the first child to die in the violence. The RUC withdrew its Shorlands in January 1970, and the surviving vehicles were transferred to the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment from April 1970, repainted deep bronze green with black disruptive striping and given military registrations. Shorland-derived vehicles remained in use on Northern Ireland's streets in small numbers as late as 1998.

The type was also a considerable export success. By the mid-1970s more than 400 had been sold to some 20 countries, and total production across all marks passed 1,000 vehicles by the 1980s. Operators included Iraq (72), Saudi Arabia (40), Portugal (38), Thailand (32), Lebanon (30), Argentina (20) and Malaysia (20), among more than 30 nations, and Shorlands saw action in the Lebanese Civil War, the Rhodesian Bush War and the Sri Lankan Civil War. An armoured personnel carrier derivative (the SB301/S52 series) was developed from the same hull.

Later development moved away from the Series Land Rover base: the Mk4 of 1980 adopted the 3.5-litre Rover V8, and the subsequent Series 5 (S5) family was built on the Land Rover Defender 110 chassis — those later vehicles are covered by a separate record. Short Brothers sold the complete Shorland design to British Aerospace Australia in 1996. Preserved early Shorlands survive in museums, including the ninth production vehicle at the Ulster Transport Museum and a 1967 example at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.

Imagery

Preserved Shorland Mk1 armoured patrol car
Preserved Shorland Mk1 armoured patrol car geni (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
1967 Land Rover Shorland armoured car at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon
1967 Land Rover Shorland armoured car at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon Andrew Bone (Flickr: andreboeni) · CC BY 2.0 ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
Short Brothers & Harland Ltd, Belfast (renamed Short Brothers Ltd in 1977)
Manufactured
1965–c. 1980 (Mk1–Mk3; later marks continued into the 1990s)
Modifier / coachbuilder
Short Brothers & Harland ↗
Engine type
Rover 2.25 L (2,286 cc) petrol inline-four, 67–77 bhp (Mk1–Mk2); Rover 2.6 L petrol inline-six, 91 bhp (Mk3)
Production run
~650 Mk1–Mk3 (Mk1 ~100, Mk2 ~50, Mk3 500+); over 1,000 across all marks
Country of origin
United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)
Status
out of production; preserved examples in museums

Catalogue data

Record kind
Named model
Model line
Series IIA
Wheels
4

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

Development reference notes

Drive it

This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.

RACE THE SHORLAND ARMOURED PATROL ↗

Registry record updated 2026-09-09T05:01:02.028Z · status: researched