Marines patrol Afghan's battlefield

Like in a scene from the film Mad Max, the Royal Marines are deploying their latest weapons today on the plains of Afghanistan - beige, stripped-down Land Rovers, bristling with weapons.

These vehicles bring a huge feeling of power to the men. With machineguns fore and aft and anti-tank rockets for the persistent offenders, the Land Rovers race around the plains of southern Afghanistan protecting the main base of Operation Snipe - an assault by 1,000 Marines on al Qaida strongholds.

Officially, these Land Rovers are called WMIK - Weapons Mounted Installation Kit. To their crews they are called simply The Beast.

One machinegun sits by the driver, in the space most people would have their CD player. In the back stands a gunner at the trigger of a second machinegun.

"Standing up here you definitely feel like the biggest boy in the playground," says machinegunner Rob Williams, a 21- year- old Marine. "We see a threat, we go tearing off the desert."

The Beast encompasses the Marines' philosophy of being hard and fast: it has no armour plating, relying instead on its weapons and speed.

At the feet of Williams are anti-tank rockets to take on enemy vehicles, and smoke rockets to hide a quick getaway. So hardy is their build that the Beasts need no roads - they bounce along thedusty plain. "There's just nothing like it, it's a great piece of kit," says Williams, who's only frustration is that he will never get to cruise the streets of his home town, Hemel Hempstead, in it.

The focus for the Marines' patrols is a small patch of rock and dust called Forward Operating Base Taylor, the supply hub for their offensive. Every few minutes Chinook helicopters bring in supplies and men to be sent off to the mountains in the south east where the Marines are dug in.

The job of The Beasts is simple: with most of the heavy guns and manpower in the mountains, protecting the base means hitting any threat before it can hit the base.