Sustainment: M113 deliveries ramp up | ADM Aug 08
After a troubled gestation the Army has begun fielding its upgraded M113 armoured personnel carriers; 1 Brigade’s combat units should be fully equipped by the end of 2009 and the upgraded M113 will remain in service until at least 2020.
By Gregor Ferguson
The first Army rifle company to be equipped with the upgraded M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) is now fully operational and prime contractor Tenix Defence (recently bought by BAE Systems Australia) is ramping up production from 4 to 10 vehicles a month.
The initial company-lift batch of upgraded M113s went to the recently reformed 7 RAR at Robertson Barracks in Darwin in December last year, and both it and sister unit 5 RAR will be fully equipped with the new vehicles by the end of 2009, according to Brigadier Mike Phelps, the DMO’s Director General Land Manoeuvre Systems.
With production ramping up and Army expressing some satisfaction at the capability improvement its starting to receive, the M113 upgrade, Project Land 106, was taken off Parliamentary Secretary Greg Combet’s list of ‘Projects of Concern’ earlier this year.
It got onto the list following extensive delays caused by mainly niggling but persistent technical problems; the last of these, relating to brake performance and longevity, were resolved early in 2007 when prototypes successfully passed a searching Reliability Qualification Trial.
Notwithstanding these delays, the remainder of 1 Brigade will receive its upgraded M113s by December 2010, in accordance with the original project schedule.
The life of type of the upgraded fleet is at least 2020, Phelps said, and the exact retirement date will be determined by the schedule for introduction of its replacement under Project Land 400 – this in turn will be determined by the Defence White Paper and its influence on the Defence Capability Plan.
Support services
In parallel, the DMO and Army are ramping up an in-service support capability to sustain the M113s, and nearer to the end of the year they expect to make a decision on whether to keep this function in-house, or to call tenders from suitable contractors.
Their thinking will be informed by the outcomes from the imminent RFT for contractor-provided in-service support for the Army’s M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and ASLAVs.
The $624 million M113 upgrade program covers 350 vehicles, 329 of which will be uprated to M113AS4 configuration, with a 666mm stretch and insertion of a sixth road wheel to bring the weight of the APC variant to around 18 tonnes.
The 21 ‘unstretched’ vehicles will be uprated to the 15-tonne M113AS3 configuration – these are the Armoured Mortar variants which mount an 81mm mortar firing through a hatch in the roof of the hull.
In all, seven variants are being upgraded: the APC; Armoured Mortar; Fitters; Recovery; Command; Ambulance; and Logistics. These will be issued mainly to units in 1 Brigade, ADM was told: 5 and 7 RAR; 1st Armoured Regt; 1st Combat Signals Regiment; 8/12 Medium Regt, Royal Australian Artillery; 1 Combat Engineer Regt; 1 Combat Service Support Battalion; and the School of Armour and Army Logistics School.
The APC variant is the most numerous, comprising 171 vehicles.
While deliveries won’t be complete until December 2010, Army will be shaking out the new capability later this year on Exercise Predator’s Shield when the M113AS4 will operate alongside the 1st Armoured Regiment’s M1A1 Abrams for the first time; 12 months from now, something close to a Brigade-level capability will be put through its paces on EX Predator’s Gallop.
Army is keen to get the upgraded vehicles into service as soon as possible in order to get this enhance combined arms capability on-line, ADM was told.
However, there are no plans as yet to deploy the M113AS3/4 to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Once the capability is bedded in, the upgraded M113s become another option for force planners examining operational requirements in these and other theatres.
Debate
While there has been much heated debate over the combat utility of the M113AS3/4 family, and specially perceptions of its vulnerability to certain classes of threat, Army won’t buy into the discussion.
Its determination to press on with the upgrade program in spite of the widely reported technical problems and delays it encountered suggests it is happy with the capability it is getting, and BRIG Phelps told ADM the Army believes the upgraded M113 enjoys a good level of protection for this class of vehicle. Defence, understandably, doesn’t disclose protection levels of its combat vehicles.
Last year, Defence’s Capability Development Group told ADM, “Future light armoured vehicle systems will be considered in the context of Land 400 but at present the upgraded M113 fleet provides the family of vehicles that Army requires to conduct mechanised operations.
Similar vehicles are very limited in availability, do not fully meet Army’s requirements, and are significantly more expensive.
“As delivered by Land 106, the upgraded M113 is one of the most survivable light armoured vehicles in its weight class in the world.
"The upgraded M113 also provides more effective firepower, improved mobility and better habitability than the current M113A1 fleet.
"The upgraded vehicle’s capabilities complement those of the M1A1 Abrams tank and ASLAV fleets, increasing the range of options available to Army to address current and future threats and operational requirements.”
Prime contractor Tenix selected a largely off the shelf upgrade package developed by German firm FFG for the German and Danish Armies’ M113s.
The old 150kW, two-stroke Detroit Diesel engine has been replaced by a 260kW, four-stroke MTU engine with a six gear ZF transmission.
The vehicle’s suspension has also been uprated to cope with the extra weight while the belly armour has been strengthened and eternal appliqué armour and internal spall curtains added.
The APC variant sports a new turret, designed by Tenix and mounting a .50 calibre machine gun with powered drive and Thales Maxi day-night sight.
This is a significant improvement over the notoriously inaccurate .50 calibre installation on the legacy T50 turret, which had no stabilisation and no accurate sight system; however, it lacks the sheer firepower of the ASLAV’s 25mm Bushmaster cannon and this will undoubtedly be taken into account when matching assets with roles and threats in future contingencies.
With Project Land 106 now largely out of the limelight, Army and the DMO are concentrating on delivering the new vehicles and creating a support system that will sustain them for the next 12 years at least.
Copyright, Australian Defence Magazine August 2008