Land Rover 101 Forward Control  The 101 Forward Control or Land Rover 101FC was a vehicle produced by Land Rover for the British Army. It was never made available to the public. The vehicle was primarily produced to meet the Army's requirement for a gun tractor, and was designed to tow a field gun (the L118 Light Gun) with a ton of ammunition and other equipment in the rear load space, giving it the alternative name of the "Land Rover One Tonne". The vehicle was designed to be easily transported by air; the positioning of the 3.5 litre Rover V8 engine beneath and to the rear of the cab eliminates the bonnet at the front, making the vehicle more or less cuboid thus reducing unused space in transport aircraft. Of concern was the payload and limited stability, particularly when crossing an incline. The official name of 101 Forward Control is derived from the vehicle's wheelbase, and the position of the driver, above and slightly in front of the front wheels which used a fairly large 9.00 × 16 inch tyre. To cope with the extra height above the ground, the wheels feature an unusual feature for a Land Rover (but used for many years on the much older and similar Mercedes Unimog S404); a flange around the centre of the wheel has an embossed tread pattern forming a step for the crew when entering the cab, named a wheel-step. Development of the 101FC started in 1967, with a design team led by Norman Busby (14 October 1931 – 30 June 2005). Production took place between 1972 and 1978. In common practice of the armed forces, many vehicles were not used for some years and it is not unheard of for military vehicle enthusiasts to pick up these vehicles after only a few thousand miles service. All the vehicles produced at the Land Rover factory at Lode Lane, Solihull were soft top ("rag top") General Service (GS) gun tractors, although later on many were rebuilt with hard-top ambulance bodies and as radio communication trucks. A rare variant is the electronic warfare Vampire body. It is thought that only 21 of these were produced and less than half of these survive today. One was destroyed in the Buncefield Oil Terminal Fire. The 101FC also served with the RAF Regiment. Two 101s were allocated to each Rapier Missile set up. The British RAF Rapier system used three Land-Rovers in deployment: a 24V winch fitted 101 Firing Unit Tractor (FUT) to tow the launch trailer, loaded with four Rapier missiles, guidance equipment and radio; a 12V winch fitted 101 Tracking Radar Tractor (TRT) to tow the Blindfire Radar trailer, also loaded with four Rapier missiles and guidance equipment; and a 109 Land Rover to tow a reload trailer with 9 Rapier missiles and loaded with the unit's other supplies and kit.