Land Warfare 2007: New life for old warhorse

1 October 2007

By Mick Toal

Getting the upgraded M113 back into service has been a long, hard road. The project has encountered delays and close scrutiny from the ANAO, but it looks as if deliveries are set to start fairly soon.

Australia’s ageing fleet of US-made M113A1 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) has been given a new lease of life to soldier on until at least 2020 as part of the ever-evolving hardened army.

For more than 40 years these vehicles have been the armoured backbone of the Australian Army’s Regular and Reserve infantry force and they rendered sterling service in Vietnam, Somalia, Rwanda and East Timor.

Under Project Land 106 M113AS upgrade, the fleet of 766 M113A1 APCs will be reduced to 91 AS3 and 259 AS4 variants manufactured by Tenix Defence Land Systems at Bandiana, near Albury-Wodonga on the NSW-Victorian border.

At the time this article was being written, a Tenix Defence spokesman said the first of the M113AS would be delivered to the Army in November and Project Land 106 would be completed by 2010, as per the terms of the contract.

The new vehicle will primarily equip the 5th and 7th Mechanised Infantry Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) as part of the Australian Army’s 1st Brigade.

The “de-linking” of 5/7 RAR, which was previously the Australian Army’s only mechanized infantry battalion, has resulted in the formation of the extra mechanised battalion; 7 RAR will be located at a new facility in Edinburgh, near Adelaide, SA.
The remaining M113A1 hulls will progressively be withdrawn from service and their armoured mobility and reconnaissance roles within Regular and Reserve units will be taken over by the ASLAV and Bushmaster variants.

The fate of the surplus hulls is yet to be decided, though sales to foreign powers must be approved by the US State Department.

Serious upgrade
Although the upgraded vehicles will retain the M113 designation, only the ghost of their ancestors will remain in the re-built AS family of vehicles (FOV) which are essentially a new Australian variant.

The 171 M113AS4 Armoured Personnel Carrier (Stretched), or APC (S), which comprise the bulk of new vehicles, will need to be lengthened by 666mm - requiring an extra sixth road wheel on each side - and will also receive new suspension, power pack, drive train, appliqué armour and spall curtains, external fuel tanks and T150F turret mounting a 12.7mm (.50 calibre) machine gun with quick change barrel.

There will also be 50 Logistics (M113AS4 ALV) and 38 fitters (M113AS4 AF) vehicles based on the uniquely Australian lengthened M113 hull, of which 259 will be manufactured.

The 15 ambulance (M577AS3 AA), 43 command (M577AS3 ACV), 21 mortar (M125AS3 AM) and 12 light recovery (M806AS3 ARVL) vehicle types based on existing M577, M125 and M806 hulls will comprise the 91 hulls to be re-built as “unstretched’ AS3 10-wheel vehicles.

The upgraded M113s will be no longer be amphibious due to increased weight - the M113AS4 APC (S) will have an 18 tonne bridging classification - but they will be transportable by C130H/J aircraft and rail. The Army’s existing eight tonne Mack trucks will no longer be able to transport the upgraded M113s.

Support vehicles to lift the upgraded M113 fleet are not being funded under Project Land 106. Project Land 121 Overlander will address this, but there may be a capability gap in the meantime.

First a bit of history
The M113A1 entered Australian service in 1965. The vehicle was chosen in preference to the British FV432 family of APCs and subsequently saw extensive service from 1966-1972 in Vietnam, during which time it received several “in theatre” modifications, including belly and sponson armour to enhance protection against mines and turrets and gun shields for the crew commanders.

One piece of equipment, which was never resolved, was a sighting system for the two guns - typically a .30 and .50 calibre Browning machine gun - in the T50 turret fitted to most M113A1 APCs. To this day aiming is judged by the primitive method of the crew commander observing “fall of shot” and there is zero integral night vision sighting capability.

As early as 1992 a more substantial and methodical upgrade was proposed to improve firepower, night vision, fighting, habitability and survivability capabilities of what were even then very basic vehicles.

Ironically, the proposal came on the eve of Operation Solace - Australia’s deployment of a Battalion Group in support of the US-led Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in January 1993.

A squadron of M113A1 APCs and other variants provided vital armoured mobility to Australian troops based at Baidoa throughout the four-month peacekeeping operation.

The Somalia deployment heralded an unprecedented period of operational activity for the ADF that further tested the ageing vehicles and highlighted the drastic need for their major upgrade, or even replacement.

Shortly after Somalia, a section of four vehicles was sent to Rwanda to support the UN peacekeeping mission in 1994 and in September 1999 large numbers of M113A1s were deployed to East Timor and hundreds have since served and continue to serve to this day.

Project Land 106
Phase 1 of a less ambitious Minimum Upgrade Project was awarded to Tenix in May 1997 to procure upgraded turrets, cooled drinking water systems, A2 standard suspension kits, spall curtains and engine cooling kits to upgrade 537 vehicles to M113A2 standard. Phase 2 was to upgrade the remaining vehicles in the fleet to the same standard with final delivery to be in late 2000.

Due to a 1994 cost increase, it was proposed that only 364 vehicles be initially upgraded and then a further 154 vehicles in Phase 2.

In late 1997-early 1998, Tenix presented Defence with an unsolicited proposal to combine Phase 1 and 2 and upgrade 360 vehicles to M113AS3 standard - which expanded on the proposed A2 upgrade with a new power pack and drive train - based on the existing M113A1 hull.

Defence subsequently suspended the Phase 1(a) Prime Contract in June 1999 and Tenix presented Contract Change Proposals (CCPs) to develop a new contract, which represented the second stage of the project.

Contractual conundrums
The Major Upgrade Contract was signed in July 2002 for the supply of 350 vehicles, the bulk of which would be the AS4 variant - which required the hull to be lengthened by 666mm and the addition of an extra road wheel on each side - at a cost of $388 million (at December 2001 prices).

However, the constant change in specifications and requirements, some prompted by 2000 Defence White Paper recommendations to substantially harden the Army, took their toll on budgets and deadlines.

A Performance Audit handed down by the Auditor General in July 2005, concluded: “The [M113 AS upgrade] Project has undergone extensive scope changes and chronic schedule delays since its inception”.

“The M113 family of vehicles was originally to undergo a minimum upgrade to improve firepower, night vision, fighting, habitability and survivability capabilities.

“The Project changed and is now to perform a major upgrade of 350 M113 vehicles comprising about two thirds of the current in-service fleet.

“The M113 Major Upgrade Project was approved at a cost of $552 million in June 2002. The ADF is yet to receive any upgraded vehicles [as of July, 2005]. The upgraded vehicles will not start to enter into service until late 2006 with the last vehicle to be delivered in late 2010.

“The vehicle has a planned end of life of 2020. The new contracted vehicle, while consistent with the currently approved project scope, is substantially different to the vehicle originally envisaged by the Army.”

The report found the original project to convert the M113 fleet to A2 configuration “suffered from poor project management practices; ineffective project planning; inadequately defined project objectives; and suffered technical problems with the T50 turret.”

The report found “an inability of Defence to successfully manage changes in requirements” was responsible for a “three year delay between the approval to combine the phases in June 1999 and entering into a contract for the major upgrade of 350 M113 vehicles”.

“By February 1999, before Contract suspension, some $9.7 million had been spent from the Minimum Upgrade Prime Contract. After the decision to sole source, some $27.8 million was paid for tasks performed by the Contractor [Tenix] towards developing an acceptable combined upgrade proposal and for postponement costs,’’ the Auditor General concluded.

However, the new Major Upgrade contract signed in July 2002 which specified the AS vehicles would be in service by late 2006 “provided an improved framework for Defence to advance the Project”.

Back on tracks
Within weeks of the first M113AS vehicles being delivered to the Australian Army, the Tenix production line at Bandiana is now in full swing to meet a deadline for the first time at the finale of Project Land 106 by having the production of all 91 AS3 and 259 lengthened AS4 vehicles complete by 2010.

Tenix’s major technology partner for the program is the German company FFG, whose team includes DaimlerChrysler-MTU and ZF. FFG was responsible for the upgrade of hundreds of German and Dutch M113s to G3 standard.

Key subcontractors and suppliers include Thales Optronics (turret sight), Moog GmbH (turret drives), SKF Australia (turret slew/traverse bearings), Bisalloy (HHA Steel) and a number of Australian SMEs.

The bare hulls, which will be stripped of every nut and bolt before conversion, will be fitted with a EURO III four-stroke DaimlerChrysler-MTU engine coupled to a six gear ZF automatic transmission and Yoke steering with true pivot turn and natural steering input in reverse.

While the M113A1’s Detroit Diesel 6V53 engine was rated at around 150kW, the new four stroke, turbo charged MTU 199 engine is rated at 260kW. At a unit cost of around $480,000, the engine is the most expensive single component in the M113AS FOV.

External appliqué armour and internal Kevlar spall curtains will enhance the hull’s base level compressed aluminium armour. Reinforcing will provide increased mine blast protection.

The new Tenix-designed and manufactured one man turret will provide a quantum leap in technology over the M113A1’s antiquated T50 turret with a day/night sight (including a unity vision periscope channel) and electric powered turret drives with stabilisation as future growth capability. The weapon will be a M2 HB Quick Change Barrel (QCB) 12.7mm machine gun.

The dual mode turret drives offers single-handed operation of primary functions in powered and reversionary modes and manual hand cranks ensure it remains functional if power is lost.

Although the final cost of the project is yet to be determined, the December 2001 unit cost for an M113AS4 APC (S) was $1,054,093 and a M113AS3 ACV was $689,569.