By treating preferably unarmed military vehicles on rubber, it is evident that our Navy and Air Force have a little less visibility here and I regret it. In this case, going through various reports, a piece of news emerged that few know: our flagship represented by the Navy owns a vehicle at the apex of tactical mobility and built for special forces operations.
An unstoppable one for the COMSUBIN
The credit goes to Admiral Gino Birindelli for having given life to the Diving and Inshore Pools "Teseo Tesei" (greater than the gn who died on July 26, 1941, gold medal for military valor) of the Navy, a multitasking department with a very high degree of operation in all dimensions. Real Italian Special Forces where the COM command is divided into two specialties, SUB and IN, giving rise to the name COMSUBIN.
These are the "GOS diving operating group" and the "GOI operating raiders group". With an indisputable efficiency such as to create embarrassment in a confrontation with the 22nd Special Air Service SAS or the Navy SEALs, our navy wanted to focus even more on rapid tactical mobility with a special 4x4 vehicle. Remember the Flyer American but in reality in the civil conformation it is among the numbers one of the extreme off-road vehicles.
LRPV "FOX" Tactical Vehicle
Its chassis, its measurements as well as its mechanics derive from the Japanese Toyota land Cruiser, but in the Navy this special version, registered in 2006, is the Series 79 variant FOX-r specially designed as Long Range Patrol Vehicle for military tasks and cataloged MOD Pick Up Jankel.
We do not know the units of this vehicle in service in the MM, the specialist tests or the driving impressions because the data is confidential as it is a vehicle for special departments. However, it is a platform with side members and rigid bridges to which Toyota is particularly fond and which guarantees that continuity of the brand towards the specialized 4x4 segment. A market niche for which Toyota is particularly keen to safeguard traditions to differentiate itself from SUVs.
Making space among the rampant SUVs, as reported several times, the icons ofoff road on the 4x4 market, they lead back to Toyota, but also to other names such as: Mitsubishi Pajero, Jeep Wrangler, G Class, Mahindra, Land Rover and Suzuki Jimny.
Wheel arch and bodywork then the entire overlying structure has been redesigned and the belt line is interrupted because there are no front doors but only a collapsible windshield. An open vehicle with a roll cage cage behind the two front seats, which extends to protect the two occupants on the body. It is designed to attach burst weapons and transport materials or tow them, but the nature of Toyota's LRPV is typical of the raider, that is, wide mobility to create quick and diversionary actions.
It has two tanks for a total of 100 liters of diesel, while its PTT is 2,7 tons for a length of just over 5 meters. The total mass with trailer reaches 6,7 tons and its engine, clearly in line, is the most performing in terms of torque in the Toyota series: a 6 cm4164 3 HP 200V followed by a 5-speed mechanical transmission with reduction gear and permanent all-wheel drive.
The tires are treaded 750R16 6 PR and the color is in desert livery.
Versatile, LRPV can tackle detached missions of up to 10 days or 1.500 km, but at the same time it can be used for the surveillance and protection of mobile columns rather than for urban operations.
Jankel
In the world of fitters there is English Jankel, leader in protection systems for military and civil vehicles. The headquarter is a few tens of km from London and, due to its characteristics of structural strength and mechanical simplicity, the Land Cruiser is well suited to the elaborations produced for the security market. In addition to the military sector light tactical vehicles and police, the civilian version of land Cruiser it can also include standard versions revised on the basis of requests that guarantee different levels of ballistic protection from B4 up to B7 Stanag level 1 and 2, VPAM BRV 2009 Level VR7 and VR9.
NOTE: A praise to the Press Office of the Navy which, with promptness and precision (not always taken for granted when dealing with defense arguments), has taken steps to provide information on an understandably special vehicle.
