US Armed forces keep supplying 200 M113 APCs to Ukraine

Defense News June 2022 Global Security army industry
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The U.S. keeps supplying 200 M113 APCs, mostly in the M113A2 variant, to Ukraine as part of the $800 million U.S. Security Assistance for Ukraine aid package signed by President Joe Biden.
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An M113A2 Armored Personnel Carrier is parked on a flatbed trailer at Stones Ranch Military Reservation, East Lyme, Connecticut, April 27, 2022. (Picture source: U.S. Army/Sgt. Matthew Lucibello)

On April 2, 2022, the U.S. decided to offer 200 unmodified M113 APCs to Ukraine. That is enough equipment to form 2 or 3 mechanized brigades or replenish existing brigades. Because more and more Soviet-era armored personnel carriers, which are in the service of most brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, are damaged or destroyed by the Russians and Ukrainian separatists, and some suffer breakdowns too, of course. The production of new modern armored personnel carriers such as BTR-3E1, BTR-4, Otaman or Varan takes time. Hence, M113 APCs offered by the U.S., Portugal and other donors are warmly welcome.

These U.S. M113s are taken from National Guard stocks and Army surplus. Last April, U.S. soldiers assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division prepared the shipment of M113 Armored Personnel Carriers onto truck trailers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, on April 21, 2022. The 3rd ID divested the armored vehicles to support the Presidential Response requirements for the European Theater of Operations for the purpose of providing immediate military assistance to Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Defense is providing different variants of the M113 armored vehicle including ambulance versions.

The United States is conducting training of Ukrainian personnel on M113 armored personnel carriers outside the war-ravaged country amid Russia’s special military operation. “There is some training that started, a five-day training for more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers on the M113, the armored personnel carrier just to make sure they are familiar with how to use that system”, a U.S. official said during a press briefing last April.