When the US National Guard began to remove M113 tracked armored personnel carriers (APCs) from storage to send them to Ukraine as part of the eighth presidential drawdown package (PDA) in April 2022, both Russian and Ukrainian mass media and milbloggers labelled it as another example of Washington “clearing out its rubbish.”
Even the Ukrainian military and politicians treated the allocation with scorn. Members of Ukraine’s armed forces (AFU) were quoted as complaining they had been trained to operate US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) in Germany but on their return to Ukraine were only equipped with “ancient” M113s.
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However, since then the vehicles have proved their value on the front line as a “battlefield taxi” delivering troops to the “red zone,” providing logistical support, medical evacuation, and direct support to offensive operations.
The Voice of America (VoA) published a video on Wednesday, Jan. 8 commenting on the vehicles being used on operations by an unidentified Ukrainian miliary formation. It included an interview with the crew of one of the APCs. Vitalii Kovalchuk, a 36-year-old M113 driver with the callsign “Pasportu.” He said he had been using the vehicles since the fall of 2022 and since that time he had survived multiple attacks on his M113s.
He recounted one memorable incident:
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“Our unit was completely surrounded, and we had to deliver reinforcements under heavy fire,” Kovalchuk said. “We came under small-arms fire and then took a direct hit from an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] on the front of our vehicle. There was fire inside, but despite the damage, the vehicle kept moving. I was amazed. I pressed the gas, and it drove forward - it felt like a miracle.”
A gunner from the crew, 23-year-old gunner Oleksii Dmytrenko, told VoA that despite their age the M113’s are superior to Soviet-era IFVs such as the BMP-1 and BMP-2:
“Compared to the BMPs, where casualties are almost certain in most cases, the M113 holds up well against both direct and indirect hits and offers much better protection for the crew and passengers.”
The M113 was developed in the late 1950s and was first deployed to US forces in Europe in 1961 to replace the World War II M59 APC and was first used in combat in 1962 after being provided to the South Vietnamese army (ARVN). Despite its age the M113 became the most widely used armored vehicle of the US Army and is still used today by US “second line” forces as ambulances, TOW-2 anti-tank missile carriers, M121 mortar chassis, and command and staff vehicles.
Ukraine has received around 250 various M113 variants from the US and other Western allies, including Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. Many have been “up armored” with 25 mm add-on steel screens designed to disrupt the shaped charge warheads used by most hand-held anti-tank weapons as well as 12.7 mm armored-piercing ammunition. It is resistant to large fragments and shrapnel from artillery and mortar rounds
This resilience mean the M113 has become an indispensable adjunct to AFU operations on the battlefield. While most of the talk about the war in Ukraine centers on drones and the latest technology, this “old timer” continues to play a critical role in supporting operations, saving lives and enhancing troop survivability in this most challenging of war zones.
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