page_title: M113 armored personnel carrier
section_title: Israel
hierarchical_section_title: M113 armored personnel carrier / Operational history / Israel
caption_attribution_description: Armored Personnel Carriers on their way to the Gaza border For more updates: The Israel Defense Forces Facebook The Israel Defense Forces blog Follow us on Twitter
context_page_description: The M113 is a fully tracked armored personnel carrier that was developed and produced by the Food Machinery Corp. The M113 was sent to United States Army Europe to replace the mechanized infantry's M59 APCs from 1961. The M113 was first used in combat in April 1962 after the United States provided the South Vietnamese Army with heavy weaponry such as the M113, under the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam program. Eventually, the M113 was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War and was used to break through heavy thickets in the midst of the jungle to attack and overrun enemy positions. It was largely known as an "APC" or an "ACAV" by the allied forces.
  The M113 was the first aluminum hull combat vehicle to be put into mass production. Much lighter than earlier similar vehicles, its aluminum armor was designed to be thick enough to protect the crew and passengers against small arms fire, but light enough that the vehicle was air transportable and moderately amphibious.
  In the U.S.
context_section_description: The Israel Defense Forces are the second largest user of the M113 after the United States, with over 6000 of the vehicles in service.
  In 1967 some Jordanian M113 were captured in the West Bank during the Six-Day War and were integrated into the Israeli Army. In 1970 Israel started to receive the better armored M113A1 to replace the  antiquated half-tracks. The IDF M-113s were armed with M2 HB machine guns, and two MAG 7.62 mm machine guns on either side of the upper crew compartment door.
  The M113 took part in the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, when the IDF was equipped with 448 M113s that saw action on the Sinai and Golan fronts.  They proved inadequate for direct fighting due to their poor armor protection. In the Battle of Buq'atta  most of the 7th Recon Company was wiped out while trying to assault Syrian commandos with their M-113s. They were used by the IDF in the 1978 South Lebanon conflict. In the 1982 Lebanon War, they saw heavy action. PLO ambushes with RPGs caused extensive casualties because of the tendency of the M113's aluminum armor to catch on fire after being hit by anti-tank weapons. Israeli infantrymen being ferried by M113s learned to quickly dismount and fight on foot when engaged. By the time of the Siege of Beirut, M113s were only used to carry supplies to the front line, always stopping at least 100 meters from enemy lines. M113s were subsequently used by both the IDF and the South Lebanon Army during the South Lebanon conflict.
  The IDF utilized M113s during the First Intifada and the Second Intifada. In May 2004, two fully laden IDF M113s were destroyed by IEDs in the Gaza Strip, killing 11 soldiers, all those inside the vehicles on both occasions. This became known in Israel as the "APC disaster." The vulnerability of the M113 armored personnel carrier to IEDs and RPGs led the IDF to later begin to develop the Namer APC. M113s were used again in the 2006 Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead.
  In 2014, during the first wave of the IDF's ground incursion into Gaza in Operation Protective Edge, a Hamas RPG-29 destroyed a fully loaded M113 in Gaza during the Battle of Shuja'iyya, killing all seven Golani Brigade soldiers inside the vehicle. As a result, the IDF faced calls from the Israeli public to build more Namer APCs over the next decade and to gradually reduce the number of M113s used in its future combat operations. A group of 30 Israeli reserve soldiers subsequently notified their commanders that they would refuse to enter the Gaza Strip in M113s.
  The Israel Defense Forces still operates large numbers of the M113, maintaining a fleet of 6,000 of the vehicles. On numerous occasions since their introduction in the late 1960s, the IDF's M113s have proven vulnerable to modern anti-tank missiles, IEDs, and RPGs, resulting in the deaths of many Israeli soldiers riding inside the vehicles. The IDF has nonetheless been unable to replace the use of them in combat operations, due to budget constraints in equipping its large mechanized infantry regiments. Israel is also prototyping the Eitan (Hebrew for steadfast), an eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicle to replace their M113s.  Designed to serve alongside the tracked Namer, the Eitan is planned to be cheaper and lighter, at 35 tons, incorporating an active protection system and a turret. They are expected to begin replacing the M113 starting in 2020. However, due to the slow rate of production of replacement APCs, the IDF is expected to be dependent on the M113 well into the 2020s. The IDF has also increased production of Namer APCs to replace the M113.
caption: Columns of Israeli M113s approaching Gaza, during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
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