M113 Armored Personnel Carrier: Vietnam to Today

The M113 story has gotten complicated with all the variant numbers, foreign modifications, and replacement debates flying around. As someone who has watched this aluminum box on tracks serve from Vietnam to Ukraine, I learned everything there is to know about the most widely produced Western armored vehicle. Today, I will share it all with you.

Vietnam to Today

The M113 entered service in 1960 and immediately got thrown into Vietnam. Over 80,000 have been built. That number is staggering for an armored vehicle. Crews in Vietnam used them aggressively — adding extra machine guns, improvised armor shields, and developing tactics that turned what was supposed to be a battle taxi into a genuine fighting vehicle. They called them “tracks” and they changed the war.

Probably should have led with this section, honestly. The M113’s secret was simplicity. Welded aluminum hull, Detroit Diesel engine, tracks. Nothing fancy, nothing fragile. It swam. It fit inside a C-130. It kept working when more sophisticated vehicles broke down. The Army spent decades trying to replace it and kept failing because nothing else did everything the M113 did at a price anyone could afford.

The Variant Family

Mortar carriers, command posts, TOW missile launchers, Vulcan air defense guns, ambulances, recovery vehicles — the M113 chassis supported dozens of variants. Every country that operated the M113 developed their own modifications. Israel’s versions barely resemble the original.

Still Fighting

That’s what makes the M113 endearing to us armored vehicle enthusiasts — it’s still in combat right now. Ukraine has received hundreds from NATO allies and put them right back into high-intensity warfare alongside vehicles decades newer. The AMPV is replacing M113s in U.S. armored brigades, but thousands remain in National Guard inventory and foreign service. At 60-plus years old, the M113 is still earning its keep.