Specialist Police Vehicles. Part-One.

Riot Control and Dispersal.

Every police force and Paramilitary Police have developed their own types of riot dispersal vehicles to meet the needs of the various situations that may occur? Many countries including the U.K do use semi-militarised vehicles as in N-Ireland, but France, Belgium and the U.S.A. have also those types to deal with bomb and gunfire.

The riot control vehicle was developed from both the early armoured cars and armoured personnel carriers, which were of military usage. From 1947 what we have today began in the United States, being developed from military trucks adapted to deal with the Gangsterism of the 1920'-30s.

Shorts-Landrover developed the Simba series of armoured vehicles from the early 1970's to the present, armour plating was an essential to these waggon's from IRA, Loyalist and other smaller factional groupings. Blast, nail, pipe bombs, Snipers, sustained machine gunfire, petrol and other mixed concoction bombs were the main threat in the major towns and cities!

But the former RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary, had relied on the Thompson's Handy Andy truck conversion from 1922 to 1969, but in the Ulster countryside it was the landmines and home-made Culvert bombs that were fatal to these new Land rovers?