THOM WESTCOTT

The best museum ever?

WE’RE back in Muscat and on our way to the Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum. After last month’s visit to the Jaguar Land Rover showroom in Oman’s capital, where the salesman told me Land Rovers had long been popular with Oman’s military forces, I have high hopes of there being at least a couple of Land Rovers on display, and I am not disappointed. Even in the visitors’ car park, a fine welcome awaits in the form of a comely pair of old Series IIIS parked up together.

I grab a few snaps in case photos are forbidden, although I need not have worried. “Take as many photos as you like, but no videos,” encourages the man presiding over reception, which takes a very modest one Omani Rial (£2) entrance fee, We also get our own personal military escort thrown in – ours is a charming young soldier called Abdullah.

After moving through the older history of Oman, illustrated with a fine assortment of well-cared-for historic weaponry, we reach the mid-20th century, which is when the Land Rovers start appearing.

Land Rovers to the left of them, Land Rovers to the right of them. In the recent military history of Oman, which was quite extensive before Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al Said gained control and stabilised the country, Land Rovers appear to have been (hopefully loyal) long-standing companions.

There is not a single exhibition room from the mid-20th century onwards that does not include a photo of a Land Rover. After the ascendancy of Sultan Qaboos, they become ubiquitous – a reflection perhaps of the long-standing close ties between Britain and Oman – with at least one in the background of almost any military photograph. Even the little model displays of military equipment and manoeuvres are dotted with miniature Land Rovers.

Today, Sultan Qaboos drives a Range Rover, which has been great for sales figures in Oman, but museum pictures suggests he is a more long-standing fan. Trained at Sandhurst, before leading a (British-backed) coup to oust his father in 1970, the Sultan was once an active military man, and multiple photos show that, in times of war, he was also adept behind the wheel of the older members of the fleet. Here he is driving a Series II on the battlefield, and then here he is driving a nice camp-pattern Series III along a huge military parade. Abdullah says the Omani military still uses Land Rovers, although not as much as it used to.

The icing on the proverbial cake of this already fine museum, which offers a pleasurable day-out for any military enthusiast with its incredible collection of historic and modern weaponry alongside its detailing of Oman’s rich history, is the expansive outside area.

We start with a couple of nice but fairly run-of-the-mill

military Series II and IIIS and then, in its red-painted glory, a 1970 Land Rover fire tender, decommissioned in 1988 and now happily rusting away from the inside out in Muscat’s coastal humidity. I try the door handle and it opens, so I call over to Abdullah, currently deep in conversation with another member of our party, to ask if I can get in. “You’re welcome,” he shouts back. I do love the Middle East, where even one’s military escort in a Mod-run museum is happy to bend the rules.

There are around a dozen military Land Rovers on display, which again stands as testament to the British- Omani “special relationship”, about which I knew nothing before I arrived here.

There’s an ambulance in top-notch condition, resplendent with fatigues-clad mannequins loading other, injured, mannequins into the back. Nearby stands a support Land Rover for ‘Rapier Missile firing systems’ designed, by the looks of the four elongated boxes fitted to the rear tub, to transport rapier missiles to forward battleground positions. The signage informs us that these remain in current service.

There’s even a Land Rover modified into a ‘technical’ – that modern improvised military vehicle with large-calibre machine guns or anti-aircraft weapons fitted into the rear tub. And this one has two guns – a 50-cal Browning machine gun and an FN MAG 7.65 mm machine gun – pointing forward and aft, along with the obligatory mannequins.

The piece de resistance of this wonderful collection of Land Rovers is an extra-long-wheelbase Land Rover ‘tank’ with normal front wheels and rear tracks containing five ‘wheels’, the like of which I’ve never seen before. “I don’t think you’ll find one of these anywhere else in the world,” says Abdullah. “I believe this was specially designed for Oman, for fighting in Al-jebel al-akhdar (the Green Mountain).”

Now a popular tourist spot, this expansive mountain is sonamed for its verdancy, where a system of natural wadis and archaic man-made waterways has long fed orchards grown on steeply plunging valleys. In the 1970s, however, it was a pocket of fierce resistance to Sultan Qaboos’ (successful) bid for leadership and its terrain left forces struggling to bring it under government control. Hence the apparent need for this extraordinary-looking tracked and extended wheel-base Land Rover.

Wending our way towards the exit, there are a few more Land Rovers still to go, a 1975 Land Rover Banzawer, used as a bodyguard vehicle, and a couple of lovely 1970s Forward Controls. I had completely forgotten what an attractive member of the fleet the Forward Control is.

For any Land Rover enthusiast exploring Oman – and it is a country worth exploring – a trip to this museum is an absolute must. It will not disappoint.

“In the recent military history of Oman, Land Rovers appear to have been long-standing companions”