Land Rover Tangi

The Land Rover Tangi is a type of armoured vehicle, based on the Land Rover chassis used in policing in Northern Ireland. They have been used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and, since its renaming, by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The vehicle was designed and built in house by the Royal Ulster Constabulary's own engineers.

Due to the unique threat of terrorism faced by police officers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, the RUC had long used armoured vehicles to provide protection to its officers. The first to be based on the Land Rover appeared in 1957, based on a Series 1 109" wheelbase pick-up body. This incorporated only a basic level of protection, designed to defend against bricks and bottles in a public order situation. An expanded metal cage was fitted over the rear cargo bed and lined with hardboard to prevent sharp objects being thrust through the cage. Similar expanded metal grilles protected the windows and headlights on the vehicle to prevent them being broken by thrown projectiles.

However, it was not long before the police came under attack with firearms; against which the cages and hardboard of the early Land Rovers provided no protection. Plates of ballistic steel were added to each side of the rear cargo bed and an armoured steel door was fitted to the rear. Whilst this provided a greater degree of protection from low velocity weapons, there were many areas of the vehicle which were still unprotected. The RUC realised that a fresh design was required to protect their officers.

The result was the Hotspur Land Rover, named after the brand of armour plate made in Wales used in its construction. The chassis of a civilian Land Rover 109 station wagon was used. Underneath the standard aluminium roof a second roof, fabricated from armoured steel, was installed. This provided overhead protection from gunfire, petrol bombs and IEDs. Large plates of ballistic steel were bolted to the sides of the vehicle, which wrapped around the rear pillar and met with an armoured double door. Both of these doors and the side plates were fitted with sliding pistol ports, allowing the officers inside to return fire in the event of an ambush. The rear doors, sides and roof constituted an armoured box providing all round protection to the crew in the rear of the vehicle. For the protection of the driver and the front seat passenger, the windscreen and side windows were replaced with thick sheets of bulletproof glass, along with armour-plated doors. Finally, an fabricated (not expanded) metal grille could be pulled up over the windscreen to prevent the windscreen being broken by thrown objects during civil disorder, and the side windows covered with a sheet of transparent polycarbonate for the same purpose.

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