hello,

I've just bought the "a guf war eyewitness report" of the warmachines serie from verlinden publications. It contains pictures from operation desert storm.

I give you a close-up of a picture included.
At first sight it looks just like some M1A1's and one M113 are standing next to eachother. But if you take a closer look at the M113 , you'll see external fuel cells on it.
I always tought that only M113A3 have these cells, and the M113A3 only came after Desert Storm.
Is this true or did they start updating the M113 fleet to the A3 standards earlier.



greetings
Jan

Jan,
the A2's have external fuel cells. I am unsure what date they started the A3 upgrade but I dont think they were in the first GW. HTH
cheers,
Bryan

Hello,



Thanks for the reply Bryan,
I know that some countries that uses the M113A2 also uses these cells. But I've read in previous posts that the US Army never used them on theirs M113.

Thanks anyway.

greetings Jan

Jan,
You are correct that not all have the fuel cells. I believe I have even seen some in Iraq that still do not. but I am positve I have seen A2's with the external fuel cells. HTH
cheers,
Bryan

In US service, the M113A2 does not have external fuel cells with two exceptions. The M1064 120mm mortar carrier is based on the M113A2 (engine/transmission) but has external fuel cells. Also the M981 FIST-V is based on the M113A2 and also has external fuel cells.

While I do not know off hand when the M113A3 came into US service first, I do know that when I arrived at my first armor battalion in Germany, we had one M113A3 that was used as the "Jump TOC". I arrived there in 1987 and it was there when I got there. So the M113A3 was in use prior to Desert Storm, but not in widespread use.

Throughout the 1990s, many units had a mixture of both M113A2 and M113A3. When I was in an armor battalion in Ft. Hood (1st Cav), many of the medic platoon vehicles were M113A3s.

Thank you very much for these answers. It is always pleasant to learn new facts of these famous vehicles.




If you look at the M113, you can see a red cross on the back door.

Greetings,
Jan

One possible reason is for more room for tow tubes ,mortor rounds, stretchers.

The fuel tanks were moved to the exterior of the vehicles for crew protection. Burning fuel inside a tracked vehicle is a bad thing. The reason the M1064 and M981 were A2 versions with fuel tanks is that they were developed at the same time as the A3 versions were being developed. To hurry them into service, they were converted from A2s as opposed to being built on A3 systems that were not yet fielded. I have also been told that the M981 could not be built as an A3 due to the added weight of the Targeting Head and the other A3 upgrades would make the vehicle too heavy for the suspension components. I believe the M163A2 Vulcan was also an A2 version with external tanks as well.