The M113 is an armored personnel carrier that has provided the U.S. Army with a primary level of moveable infantry for nearly 50 years. Its production wasn’t as necessary in later years, however, as the M2 widely substituted the need of the M113. Although the M113 wasn’t intended for light vehicle combat, this tank served an intrimental part during the Vietnam War, causing the Viet Cong to refer to it with the deathly title of “Green Dragon”. During the war, the M113 was able to obliterate the pathway of trees and other debris in the jungle and allowed for both other APCs and ACAVs to attack and destroy the enemy’s position.

The M113 had the unique attribute of aluminum armor which made the vehicle lighter than previous versions of the APC. While other versions were well protected against heavy assaults, the M113 was able to defend against light attack from infantry while still being able to move fast across country terrain, perform amphibious missions, and be airlifted to another location at any given time. While the M113 is first and foremost an American vessel, it has been used by the governments of over 50 countries and over eighty thousand these monsterous tanks have been produced over the past 4-5 decades. While there is definitely room for improvement, the M113 has been dubbed with the title of “most significant infantry fighting vehicle in history”.

Origins

The M113 was created for the U.S. Army by the Food Machinery Corporation, who also made the M59 and M75 APCs. The M75, which proceeded the M113, was too heavy to be of much practical use when it came to amphibious assaults and airlifting missions. The M59 was made to be lighter than the M75 but it had the problem of not having enough armor to defend itself to the military’s liking. Therefore, the M113 was made to resemble both of these predecessors. The M113 has enough armor to protect itself and its crew, while being light enough to carry out its desired missions.

While two prototypes were suggested before the M113 was chosen, the M113 weighed a lot less than its counterpart, the T117, which was made out of mostly steel. The T117 had thicker armor but the aluminum defense for the M113 provided the same defense that the T117 offered. A diesel engine was added in later years to suppliment the gasoline engine of earlier prototypes.

The M113 was transferred to United Defense for production in 1994 but then United Defense itself was bought by BAE in 2005.

M113

The M113 is able to be air-lifted, air-dropped, and parachuted into any battle zone known to man. The main focus of the M113 is to deliver troops into combat in a quick, strategic fashion while providing the crew with a valuable defense during their trip. This armored vehicle moves to the front lines to drop of its soldiers and then quickly retreats to the rear of the batallion for protection by the rest of the tanks in the area. The M113 is equipped with a 12.7 mm (.50 caliber) M2 Browning machine gun which is controlled by the Commander of the vehicle.

The first barrage of 32 M113s in Vietnam arrived on March 30, 1962. Two AVRN mechanized rifle companies each took 15 M113s and rampaged the battle field during the Battle of Ap Bac in the following January, in which fourteen M113 Gunners were killed due to underqualifying specifications of the tank. Modifications were soon added and the Army mechanics took the hulls off of sunken ships and placed in on the M113. Later on, however, they found out that those shields were able to be pierced by weak offense so additional shields had to be fitted to the M113 as well: these coming from junk armored vehicles.

The M113 was later upgraded to include gun shields which became the standard for all Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles and dispatched to all mechanized units in Vietnam during the 1960s. While the M113 was intended to be a taxi for soldiers, it ended up being a light-weight amphibious tank instead. The tank was eventually “re-adopted” in this manner by the U.S. Army and was used as both a fighting machine and as a tool to gather information from the front lines. The M113 could still, however, fit 11 soldiers inside.

Modifications

The modified tanks used in the Vietnam War have also been used in Iraq and the .50 caliber gun shields have been altered while the rear left and rear right compartments have been removed all together.

The M113 has light, reactive armor with extra plates and is RPG resistant. The gunshields now have windows and the steel tracks that previously damaged roads are now replaced with band tracks.

A lot of M113s are no longer in service but the ones that are have pretty much all been upgraded in one way or another. While newer tank designs such as the M2 Bradley and other heavy defense vehicles provide more of a defense, the M113′s light armor gives it the ability to be air-lifted, which the heavier tanks cannot be.

The M113 is also used to simulate the visual perception of enemy vehicles, which gives its crew the ability to ride right into an area without having to sit inside of a transport truck.