Fourteen Portuguese M113 APCs finally on their way to Ukraine

Defense News July 2022 Global Security army industry
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Fourteen M113 armored personnel carriers offered to Ukraine by the Portuguese Government as part of plans to help Kiyv in the fight against the Russian aggression left the Santa Margarida military camp on July 8 and are on their way to Poland, where they are expected to arrive after seven days, Felícia Cabrita reported in the Portuguese media Nascer do Sol on July 9, 2022.
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The M113s are being transported by Polish civilian transporters under a U.S. Government contract. Each semi-trailer transports two M113s. The entire operation is financed by the USA and Great Britain (Picture source: Mafalda Gomes)

The M113s are being transported by Polish civilian transporters under a U.S. Government contract. Each semi-trailer transports two M113s. The entire operation is financed by the USA and Great Britain. Notice that, as reported by Army Recognition last 9 May, the gift was planned to comprise 15 M113 and 5 M114 APCs. So, when will the remaining M113 and five M114 be sent to Ukraine?

Besides this, Nascer do Sol found out from a Portuguese military source that Ukraine rejected the Portuguese offer of a batch of howitzers and Browning heavy machine guns, considering this equipment already obsolete and inadequate in the fight it is waging against the Russian invasion.

The Portuguese M113s have been around for several decades now, but the Ukrainian government considers that they may still prove useful. They are part of a batch of 150 of these vehicles acquired in second hand from the U.S. by the Portuguese Army, at reduced prices, almost 30 years ago, when the US military personnel stationed in Europe in the 1990s was scaled down as part of the détente that followed the end of the Cold War and the implosion of the Soviet Union (1991). Since then, the M113s have been stationed in Santa Margarida, where their use has always been scarce.

In addition to ammunition and some light military material that Portugal had already sent to Ukraine, also as a gift, Felícia Cabrita reports, four Italian-made M 40.12 WM/P armored vehicles. These vehicles had been adapted and improved by the GNR when it intervened in Iraq as a police stabilization force, alongside the US and British armies.