Austrian Red Cross gets a special edition Land Rover Discovery: 2018 Paris Motor Show

LAND ROVER has a long history of working with the Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations globally and the latest initiative sees this Land Rover Discovery TD6 being delivered to the Red Cross of Austria for rescue work in the Alps.

The vehicle remains mechanically standard, but has the added equipment of specialised radio communications and a drone for seeking out locations or patients in remote terrain. Images from the drone can be viewed on a big screen mounted in a specially constructed carbon-fibre capsule in the cargo area, which also secures further rescue equipment.

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Michael van der Sande, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, said: “Our partnership with the Red Cross isn’t just about our vehicles. Since we started collaborating in 1954, our aim has been to help the Red Cross improve its disaster response and ultimately to help save lives.

"Over the past 18 months our engineers have worked closely with the emergency response team at the Austrian Red Cross, deploying Land Rover’s technology and talent to create a unique solution to the requirements of the Red Cross in the region.”

While this is a very different vehicle to the go-anywhere Toyota Land Cruiser Troop Carrier ambulances we have here in Australia, the Discovery would certainly get to the scene faster than a Troopy, or a Defender for that matter. It would be interesting to see what Land Rover’s SVO group would do with a Defender replacement for such applications when it arrived in 2021.