NAMED MODELSpecial · AmbulancesMilitary · USUnited Kingdom
Ranger MEDSOV.
The MEDSOV, the 75th Ranger Regiment's casualty-evacuation version of the Ranger Special Operations Vehicle: the same Defender 110 with its rear gun mount removed to carry up to six litters and a pair of spare tyres on the nose, unarmed — two to each Ranger battalion.
A raid force that arrives in Land Rovers has to be able to leave in them with its wounded, and the Rangers built that into the RSOV fleet from the start. Each battalion holds two MEDSOVs — medical special operations vehicles — alongside the twelve gun trucks of its Alpha Company. They are RSOVs with the rear weapons mount taken out to make room for litters: up to six stretcher positions in the back, and no armament, the medics relying on the escorting gun trucks.
Mechanically the MEDSOV is the standard vehicle: the Defender 110 built by Land Rover Special Vehicles for the 1992 order, with the four-cylinder turbodiesel and manual gearbox that replaced the prototypes' V8, sized to fit an MH-47 or CH-53 with the rest of the platoon's vehicles. The spare tyres are carried at the front, where a gun truck would keep its fuel racks. The type remains in service with the regiment.
Specification
MANUFACTURERLand Rover
MODIFIER / COACHBUILDERLand Rover Special Vehicles (special operations vehicle department)
MANUFACTUREDPart of the RSOV fleet adopted in 1992
ENGINE2.5 L four-cylinder turbodiesel with manual gearbox — the sources say only "four-cylinder turbo diesel"; for a 1992–93 build that is the 200Tdi. Prototypes used the 3.5 L V8
PRODUCTION RUN6 vehicles — two per Ranger battalion, within the 60-vehicle RSOV purchase
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited States
STATUSin service
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINEDefender
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE110″
CATEGORYSpecial · Ambulances, Military · US
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.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published — the sources below link to photographs elsewhere
Where it was
US United States1992–2026 · 75th Ranger Regiment
Based75th Ranger Regiment, Fort BenningUnited States · 1992–202632.39, -84.81
