Re: M113 APCs and Things

Wish I had gotten involved on this one earlier.

A 113 onl has enough armor to protect it from small arms fire for the
Vietnam 
period. The Hull could generally stop .50 cal and below, but thats about
it. 
Around the end of the  70's the Arm had accuall dropped the "Armored"
from 
the APC nominclature for a while.

The ACAV is a kit that was added to the 113 and intended for use in
cavalry 
and scout units. It consisted of an lightly armored unpowered turret 
(actually litte more than a tall ring of sheet metal) and a gun sheild
for 
the commander and to gun sheilds for the added M-60 MMG on the sides.
Any of 
these additions could only stop small arms fire. It did'nt reduce the 
carrying capacity of the vehicle at all as it had no internal components
and 
weighed little. The reduced number of troops in the vehicle was the 
complement prescribed for the scouts/cavalry. The kit was so popular
that 
anybody who could get one equipped their track with it.

There were so many modifications done to 113s during the conflict it's
mind 
blowing. There are variants that replace any of the HMGs or MMGs ith 
recoiless rifles, flamethrowers, early auto grenade launchers, miniguns,

..you name it. Because the 113 was basically a steel box, if you could
weld 
something to it, it as done. Other modifications included things like 
aviators seats welded to the rear of the deck to serve as observation 
platforms for commanders and FOs (the 557 is not seen that oftn in VN).

The Australians had a fire support version that mounted a 75mm gun in a 
turret. Both the US and Aussies used varients that mounted cadi-gage
turret. 
I've seen at leat one vehicle fitted with a small naval turret (HMG or
20mm - 
I can't remember).

Factor variations include ambulances, bridge laers, 81mm and 4.2 "
mortar 
tracks, flame throwers and probably the most usful varient , the M163
with 
the Vulcan 20mm gatling gun. Although the last as intended for air
defense, 
several CMHs were won using the system to defend against ground targets. 

Someone mentioned the Ontos. An interesting vehicle, but not very useful
and 
absolutley hated by its USMC crew. The scorpion is not much better 
remembered. Of course the U.S. Army returned the M42 Duster to sevice.
It 
could have been useful, but most were so badly maintained by thier
National 
Guard owners they were seldom operational. 

Just some comments,

Faron