M113 armored personnel carrier

M113
A U.S. Army M113-OSV of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, provides overwatch while conducting recon operations during exercise Allied Spirit at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Bavaria, in 2015.
Type	Armored personnel carrier
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1960–present
Used by	See Operators
Wars	Cold War Vietnam War Cambodian Civil War Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Six-Day War Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Civil conflict in the Philippines Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Yom Kippur War Turkish invasion of Cyprus Lebanese Civil War 1982 Lebanon War Southern Lebanon conflict U.S. invasion of Panama Iran–Iraq War Persian Gulf War Yugoslav Wars Kosovo War Waco Siege Global War on Terrorism War in Afghanistan Iraq War War in North-West Pakistan Second Intifada 2006 Lebanon War Gaza War Libyan Civil War Operation Protective Edge Iraqi insurgency Central African Civil War[1] War in Iraq Syrian Civil War Yemeni Civil War Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Houthi-Saudi Arabian conflict Battle of Marawi Russo-Ukrainian War Russian invasion of Ukraine 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Production history
No. built	≈80,000 (all variants)[2]
Variants	Numerous, see text
Specifications
Mass	12.3 tonnes (13.6 short tons; 12.1 long tons)
Length	4.863 metres (15 ft 11.5 in)
Width	2.686 metres (8 ft 9.7 in)
Height	2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in)
Crew	2
Passengers	11–15 passengers
Armor	5083 aluminum alloy 28–44 millimeters (1.1–1.7 in)[3][4]
Main armament	M2 Browning machine gun
Secondary armament	Varies (See text)
Engine	Detroit Diesel 6V53T, 6-cylinder diesel engine 275 hp (205 kW)
Power/weight	22.36 hp/tonne
Suspension	torsion bar, 5 road wheels
Operational range	480 km (300 mi)
Maximum speed	67.6 km/h (42.0 mph), 5.8 km/h (3.6 mph) swimming

The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier (APC) that was developed and produced by the FMC Corporation. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe in 1961 to replace the mechanized infantry's M59 APCs. The M113 was first used in combat in April 1962 after the United States provided the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) with heavy weaponry such as the M113, under the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) program. Eventually, the M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War and was used to break through heavy thickets in the midst of the jungle to attack and overrun enemy positions. It was largely known as an "APC" or an "ACAV" (armored cavalry assault vehicle) by the allied forces.^[5]

The M113 was the first aluminum hull combat vehicle to be put into mass production. Much lighter than earlier similar vehicles, its aluminum armor was designed to be thick enough to protect the crew and passengers against small arms fire, but light enough that the vehicle was air transportable and moderately amphibious.

In the U.S. Army, the M113 series have long been replaced as front-line combat vehicles by the M2 and M3 Bradleys, but large numbers are still used in support roles such as armored ambulance, mortar carrier, engineer vehicle, and command vehicle. The U.S. Army's heavy brigade combat teams are equipped with approximately 6,000 M113s and 4,000 Bradleys.

The M113's versatility spawned a wide variety of adaptations that live on worldwide and in U.S. service. These variants together currently represent about half of U.S. Army armored vehicles. To date, it is estimated that over 80,000 vehicles in the M113 family have been produced and used by over 50 countries worldwide, making it one of the most widely used armored fighting vehicles of all time.^[6]

M113 production was terminated in 2007. The Army initiated the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) program to search for a replacement. In 2014, the U.S. Army selected BAE Systems' proposal of a turretless variant of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle to replace over 2,800 M113s in service.^[7] Thousands of M113s continue to see combat service in the Israel Defense Forces, although by 2014 the IDF was seeking to gradually replace many of its 6,000 M113s with the Namers,^[8] and with the Eitan AFV in 2020.^[9]