BIRST Mobile Weapons Platform.

BIRST — British Independent Reconnaissance and Strike Technology (UK) Ltd — was founded by two former army officers to develop a light strike vehicle, with initial design drawings completed by designer Mark Robins as early as 1992. The Mobile Weapons Platform they built in 1995 used a second-hand 1984 Land Rover One Ten V8 (registration B655 VBV) as its donor, clothing the 3.5-litre V8 chassis in a low, open body of fire-retardant BS Class 1 glass-reinforced plastic with mesh reinforcement over a tubular-steel spaceframe. The specification included run-flat inserts in its Bridgestone Mud Dueler tyres, 12- or 24-volt electrics, a front-bumper electric winch, and provision for machine guns, grenade launchers and anti-tank missile systems.

The finished vehicle was exhibited for the first time at the Royal Navy British Army Equipment Exhibition at Pegasus Village, Aldershot, over 3–8 September 1995. In 1996 the company answered a Malaysian government invitation to tender for a Fast Strike Vehicle, but the contract went to Glover Webb, whose proposal was likewise One Ten-based, and no production followed. As far as is known only one BIRST MWP was ever made; wearing a green-black-and-sand disruptive scheme, it survives in the Dunsfold Collection.