Wolf Ambulance
The British Army's battlefield ambulance of the Wolf era: a Marshall of Cambridge box body on the ultra-long Defender 130 (XD) chassis, procured under Project Pulse alongside the Wolf 90/110 order of January 1996 — about 800 were built, known in service as the 'Pulse' and, less accurately, the 'Wolf' ambulance.
Factory colours
- NATO Green (IRR)
Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.
History
The requirement for a new battlefield ambulance was announced in February 1992, alongside the tenders that produced the Wolf utility fleet. Land Rover won the design project — known as Project Pulse — with a version of the ultra-long-wheelbase Defender 130 (approximately 127 in / 3,225 mm wheelbase), and the production contract was placed on 18 January 1996, the same day as the ~8,000-vehicle Wolf order. Around 800 ambulances were built, entering service from 1997 as the 'Ambulance 4x4 4-Stretcher'; enthusiasts and the surplus trade call them Pulse or Wolf 130 ambulances. Strictly the Pulse was a separate development from the Wolf 90 and 110, but it shares the strengthened XD chassis engineering, 300 Tdi drivetrain and Defender front bodywork, so the 'Wolf Ambulance' label has stuck.
The insulated, heated box body was designed and built by Marshall of Cambridge (Marshall Aerospace), continuing that company's decades-long line of Land Rover military ambulance conversions. The body carries four stretcher cases, six seated (ambulant) patients, or two stretchers plus three seated, in addition to the driver and medic, with a rear step, stretcher racks, interior lighting and heater. Some examples were waterproofed for amphibious deployment with 3 Commando Brigade.
The fleet served on operations from the Balkans and Sierra Leone to Iraq and Afghanistan — and in the 2014 Ebola response in Sierra Leone (Operation Gritrock) — comfortably exceeding its specified 15-year service life, with several hundred still operational more than two decades after introduction. As heavier protected ambulances took over front-line casualty evacuation, surplus Pulse 130s were sold into preservation and civilian use, and some redundant chassis were rebuilt as Defender 130 double-cab pick-ups and mortar carriers under Project HEBE.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover
- Manufactured
- contracted January 1996; in service from 1997
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Marshall of Cambridge (Marshall Aerospace) ↗
- Engine type
- 2.5 L (2,495 cc) 300 Tdi intercooled turbodiesel inline-four
- Production run
- ~800 vehicles
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Status
- largely retired; surplus examples preserved and in civilian hands
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- 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
- MLR Pt.12 – Pulse 130 Battle Field Ambulance ↗ — Joint Forces News (accessed 2026-09-09)
- Military Land Rover Ambulances ↗ — Ex-Military Land Rover Association (accessed 2026-09-09)
- Land Rover Wolf (ambulance bodies by Marshall Aerospace) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-09)
Drive it
This vehicle is playable in the Difflocked racing game.
RACE THE WOLF AMBULANCE ↗Registry record updated 2026-09-09T10:08:23.238Z · status: researched