A Defender XD 110 in plain white, as driven by the Special Boat Service around Mazar-i-Sharif in late 2001 when an SBS unit was the quick reaction force for northern Afghanistan — the standard Wolf-family soft top, painted to pass as civilian traffic rather than to hide in the terrain.
In the autumn of 2001 British special forces were in northern Afghanistan alongside the Northern Alliance, and an SBS unit was acting as the quick reaction force for the region around Mazar-i-Sharif. Their vehicles were Defender XD 110s — the Wolf, in Land Rover's own designation — and they were white.
The colour was the point. A NATO-green Land Rover in an Afghan city is a military vehicle at a glance; a white one is a pickup like any other, and the SBS painted theirs white to blend with civilian traffic. That vehicle is what this record follows: an otherwise standard XD 110, with the Wolf's 300 Tdi turbodiesel of 111 bhp, 24-volt electrics and strengthened chassis, in a finish that no vehicle left the factory in.
The SBS QRF was the force that responded to the prison uprising at Qala-i-Jangi outside Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001, though the source consulted does not tie these vehicles to that action. Numbers deployed are not published.
Specification
MANUFACTURERLand Rover
MANUFACTUREDWolf XD 110 (from the 1996 order); photographed in Afghanistan late 2001
ENGINE2.5 L (2,495 cc) 300 Tdi intercooled turbodiesel inline-four, c. 111 bhp, R380 five-speed gearbox
PRODUCTION RUNUnknown — a handful of vehicles with one SBS unit
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSunknown
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINEDefender
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE110″
CATEGORYMilitary · UK
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Renders & references
Front three-quarterRegistry renderThree-quarterRegistry renderSideRegistry renderRearRegistry renderFrontRegistry renderSBS Land Rover in Afghanistan, 2001; user-corrected reference.Via Elite UK Forces; original photographer not identified ↗
