The smallest Land Rover on the market at the time was a Series IIA 88" which was too heavy for most military applications.

In order to deal with this, a major modification to the basic Series IIA was devised, making many body components easily detachable and removing many non-essential items.

The result was the Land Rover Half-Ton, known widely as the Lightweight or Air Portable.

The NATO designation was; Truck Utility FFR 1/2T 4x4 Rover Series 3 In practice, to reduce weight sufficiently for the helicopters of the day to lift them in combat conditions, the tilt and sticks, the upper parts of the body and the doors and windscreen were removed, all to be refitted later The most significant change however was a reduction in width of 4", by redesigning the standard Series IIA axles and fitting shorter half-shafts, which meant it would fit on a standard pallet The Ministry of Defence accepted them for use with production continuing until 1984 when more powerful helicopters became avail...