M113 Armored Personnel Carrier Totally Explained

Everything about M113 Armored Personnel Carrier totally explained

The M113 is an armored personnel carrier family of vehicles in use with the US military and many other nations.
It is a fully tracked vehicle capable of limited amphibious operation in lakes and streams, extended cross-country travel over rough terrain, and high speed operation on improved roads. The M113 family has many variants and modifications that are used in a variety of combat and combat support roles. Approximately 80,000 units of all types have been produced worldwide making it one of the most widely used armored fighting vehicle of all time. Although not a tank, or even designed as a fighting vehicle, the M113 was the most utilized armored vehicle of the Vietnam War. It inspired newer generations of more heavily armored and armed infantry fighting vehicles. Yet it remains in front-line service and production in the 21st century, and the M113 was recently declared the best in a television comparison of "top 10" armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.

Origins

The M113 was first introduced in 1960 and in 1962 was fielded in Vietnam, but without the added ACAV sets, which consisted of gun shields and belly armor. The M113 was developed from the M59 and M75 Armored Personnel Carrier which were designed by Food Machinery Corp. and Kaiser Aluminium and Chemical Co. in the late 1950s. The M113 was originally developed and manufactured by FMC of San Jose, California to fulfill the requirement to be an "Airborne Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle Family" (AAM-PVF) of all-purpose, all-terrain armored fighting vehicles.
Two vehicles were initially considered, the T113 and T117. The T113, effectively the prototype of the M113, was chosen because it was marginally lighter than the T117. This was a product of the T113 being made of aluminum rather than steel. This difference on construction material was the major difference between the two vehicles. The T113 design was improved upon as the T113E1, and adopted by the US Army in 1960 as the M113. A diesel prototype T113E2 was put into production in 1964 as the M113A1. The M113A1 quickly supplanted the gasoline engined M113 in service.

Design and development

The M113 first entered service with the U.S. Army in 1960. It was developed to provide a highly mobile, survivable, and reliable tracked-vehicle platform that's able to keep pace with the current armored vehicles and tanks of the day. It requires only two crewmen, a driver and a commander, and carries eleven passengers inside the vehicle. Its main armament is a single .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine gun operated by the commander.
   The M113 was designed to transport troops, protected against small arms fire and shell fragments, to the front line where they'd disembark. During early engagements in the Vietnam War, when Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops were pinned down by fire, they found that they couldn't simply return fire from within and overwhelm opposing forces. The exposed .50 caliber machinegunner's position made the gunner vulnerable to enemy small arms fire, even if the opposing force lacked the firepower to stop their lightly armored M113s. They soon fitted makeshift shields for the vulnerable machine gun.
   The predecessor to the standardized Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle (or ACAV) variant was introduced by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam during the early 1960s. During the M113's initial fielding in Vietnam in 1962, it was found that the commander and cargo hatch positions were extremely exposed and the vehicle's armament was in many ways lacking. The ARVNs had modified the M113s to function as "amphibious light tanks" and not as battle taxis as US designers had intended. Instead of an armored personnel carrier, the ARVN utilized the carried infantry as extra "dismountable soldiers" in an "an over-sized tank crew." These "ACAV" sets were eventually adapted to US Army M113s, with the arrival of the US Army's conventional forces in 1965. The vehicles continued to operate in the role of a light tank and reconnaissance vehicle, and didn't operate as designed in theatre. Still, the M113 could carry 11 infantrymen inside, with two crewmen operating the M113.
   The US Army, after berating the Vietnamese for flouting battle doctrine, came out with their own ACAV version. This more or less standardized ACAV kit included shields and a circular turret for the .50 caliber M2 machine gun in the Track Commander (TC) position, and 2 additional M60 machine guns with shields for the left and right rear positions, and "belly armor", which consisted of a sheet of steel, bolted from the front bottom extending 1/2 to 2/3 way towards the bottom rear of the M113. The two rear machine gunners could fire their weapons while standing inside the open cargo hatch, which was rectangular in shape. This transformed the M113 into a fighting vehicle, but the vehicle in such a role still suffered from its lightly armored configuration, having never been designed for such a role. A number of prototypes with factory-installed firing ports on each side of the APC were constructed, and at least one of these XM734 was deployed to Vietnam for testing. Reports from the field were reportedly not enthusiastic.
   Modified versions of the Vietnam War ACAV sets have been deployed to Iraq (Formally referred to as Southwest Asia within the US military) for installation on the current M113 series vehicles in use. An improved circular shield turret deployed to Iraq, and such vehicles have been utilized without the 2 rear stations. However, they reportedly are modified with armor to protect the Track Commander (TC) position and are NOT employing the two rear left and right machine gun stations.
   The M113 is built of aircraft quality aluminum which gives it some of the same strength as steel at a slightly reduced weight (the vehicle weighs approximately 10.5 tons), as the greater thickness allows structural stiffness. Its weight allows the use of a relatively small engine to power the vehicle, a Detroit 2-stroke six cylinder diesel, as well as allowing the vehicle to carry a large payload cross-country and to be transported by fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. It can also swim without deploying any flotation curtains, powered by tracks, which was of tactical importance in battlefields like Vietnam which required crossing a multitude of terrain features; such as jungles, swamps, muddy dirt roads, forests, and rice fields.
   The current M113A3 has a 480 km range and a maximum speed of 64 km/h. The upgraded M113A3 has added spall suppression liners, armored external fuel tanks, a more powerful engine and transmission, and mounting plates for the option of bolt-on titanium, aluminum, ceramic, or high-hardness steel appliqué armor. Band tracks and hybrid-electric drive features can make the M113 stealthy and travel faster than 60 mph on roads while doubling range from 300 to 600 miles on one load of fuel, but these features have not be added to operational vehicles.
   Today’s M113 fleet includes a mix of these A2 variants together with other derivatives equipped with the most recent A3 RISE (Reliability Improvements for Selected Equipment) package. The standard RISE package includes an upgraded propulsion system (turbocharged engine and new transmission), greatly improved driver controls (new power brakes and conventional steering controls), external fuel tanks, and 200 AMP alternator with 4 batteries. Additional A3 improvements include incorporation of spall liners and provisions for mounting external armor.
   The future M113A3 fleet will include a number of vehicles that will have high speed digital networks and data transfer systems. The M113A3 digitization program includes applying appliqué hardware, software, and installation kits and hosting them in the M113 FOV.

History

Vietnam

The Vietnam War was the first combat opportunity for "Mechanized" Infantry, a technically new type of infantry with its roots in the Armored Infantry of World War II, now using the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. In addition, Armored Cavalry Squadrons in Vietnam consisted largely of M113s after replacing the intended M114 in a variety of roles, and Armor battalions contained M113s within their headquarters companies, such as the maintenance section, medical section, vehicle recovery section, mortar section, and the scout (reconnaissance) section.
   M113s were instrumental for escorting convoys through contested territory in Vietnam, and are commonly seen in combat photos, sometimes with M48 or M551 tanks for added firepower. Some M113s with improved/modified main gun shields similar to or directly modified from existing ACAV equipment have been deployed to Iraq for similar duties.
   The USAF used M113 and M113A1 ACAV vehicles in USAF Security Police Squadrons providing air base ground defense support in Vietnam. M113s were also supplied to the South Vietnam ARVN forces. They were also supplied to the Cambodian government army, equipped with a turret for the machine gun and a recoilless rifle mounted on the roof.
   Australia operated the M113 in Vietnam. After initial experience showed the crew commander was too vulnerable to fire the Australian army tried a number of different guns shields and turrets, eventually standardising on the Cadillac-Cage T-50 turret fitted with two .30 cal browning machine guns or a single .30/Single .50 combination. Other turrets were triedas were various gun shields, the main design of which was similar to the gun shield used on US M113 ACAV version.
   In addition Australia operated an M113 variant fitted with a Saladin armored car turret with a 76mm gun as a fire support vehicle or FSV for infantry fire support.
   Subsequent to Vietnam all Australian M113 troop carrier version are fitted with the T50 turret. The FSV was eventually phased out and replaced with a modernized version known as the MRV (medium reconnaissance vehicle). The MRV featured a Scorpion turret with 76mm gun, improved fire control and passive night vision equipment.

Law Enforcement

M113s have been adopted by some law enforement agencies. Photos show an M113 marked "Midland County Sherrif" was used in the 2008 raid of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound.

Nicknames

The M113 has never received an official name, but has received a variety of nicknames over the years. The NLF called it the "Green Dragon"; the Swiss referred to it as the "Elefantenrollschuh" or elephants' roller-skate; the Germans called it the "Schweinewürfel" or pig cube. U.S. troops tended to refer to the M113 simply as a "track". Some sources have referred to the M113 as the "Gavin" in an allusion to Gen. Gavin, but U.S. forces have never used the name.

:Brazilian Army: 580; Brazilian Marine Corps: 29

(Forces Armées Nationales Khmères (FANK), (Khmer Rouge), (Royal Cambodian Army): 210.."only 20 are know to be fully operational"

: 1,200

(Chilean Army): 427

: 120

(One captured example "239943"): 8

: 632

: 2,650

: 110

: 4,000 (being phased out and replaced by the ATF Dingo and Boxer MRAV)

: 1,670

(New Iraqi Army): 233

(Imperial Iranian Army), (Islamic Iranian Army (IIA): 2000

(Israeli Defence Forces): 5,500

(Italian Army): +3,000

: 300

(South Korean Army): 540

: 80

(Lebanese Army) 1100+

: 90

: 550

: 30

(Royal Netherlands Army), (Royal Marechaussee): replaced with YPR-765

(New Zealand Army): 120 (Replaced with NZLAV lll)

(Norwegian Army): 900

: 2,000

: 245

: 100+

(Polish Land Forces): 35

(Portuguese Army): 150

(Saudi Arabian Army), (Saudi National Guard): 1,750

: 1,200 (being replaced by Bionix AFVs)

: 860 (being replaced by the Pizarro IFV)

: 400

South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam Army (ARVN)), (Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN))

(Republic of China Army): 675

: 385

: +3,000

: +10,000

The M113 is also used by NASA for emergency evacuation of astronauts during a launch pad emergency, as well as some police SWAT units, like the Phoenix, Arizona police department.

: 15

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