In the works IX
Today we’re going to start by taking a look at a couple of M113 variants. The now famous shoebox on treads was introduced to US service in 1960 as a replacement for the too expensive M75 and the unreliable M59 APCs. Since then more than 80,000 vehicles have been built, serving in nearly every Western aligned military in the world doing every job imaginable. One of those jobs was that of the missile armed tank destroyer.
As anti-tank guided missiles were developed from the 1950s on, arguments about how to use them were inevitable. Some militaries saw them as little more than a lighter, longer ranged anti-tank gun. Others considered them an ambush weapon or even the main effort of an operational offense/tactical defense strategy. In any case, the advantages of a guided weapon that could penetrate any practical level of armor were just as clear as the disadvantages: until fairly recently the missile had to be guided by the gunner, launching meant a huge cloud of dust and smoke that was decidedly unhealthy for anyone behind the launcher, and missiles are slower than bullets or tank shells. These three factors meant that when you fire a missile you tell the whole world what you just did and where you did it. Then you need to guide the missile to your target for up to 40 seconds while your target and all its friends try to kill you. Even if they don’t succeed, most people don’t handle being shot at well, and tend to duck or flinch, which isn’t good for missile guidance. Whether the shot hits or not, the gunner now has the problem that the enemy knows where he is and must now reload and take another shot or run to a new position with his large, expensive and very heavy and bulky missiles and launcher.
One of the basic answers to that problem simply to put the launcher on a vehicle, preferably armored at least enough to handle machine guns and artillery fragments. This largely solves the problem of suppressive fire, as the artillery and machine guns aren’t very effective against armor, as well as the problems of mobility. Your vehicle doesn’t get tired or suffer back pain, has a lot more room than the average rucksack and is much faster than a pair of feet.
In typical US Army fashion, the quick answer was to stick a TOW launcher on a M113 APC while the expensive answers, like the M2 Bradley or M901 Improved TOW Vehicle, languished in development hell for years. While no one appears to have officially called that the M150, the designation has become accepted after the fact by gamers and students, and the simple, cheap and effective solution was used all over the world.
We’re going to call it the M150 too, since “carrier, fully tracked M113 with launcher, missile, anti-tank M151” is a bit of a mouthful. M150s will ship with one M2 .50 cal and one MG-3 machine gun for US or NATO service.
Another role was that of surface to air missile carrier. The Norwegians decided that the RBS-70 laser guided SAM was just the ticket for their tactical antiaircraft needs and opted to stretch their defense kroner by sticking the missile launcher on the M113. They were already using them in a variety of roles, so just made sense.
Several efforts were made to come up with an infantry fighting vehicle that didn’t take 20 years to develop or cost quite so much. One of those was the Norwegian NM135 Stompanservogn. Using the turret from the Pbv 302 and the 20mm Rheinmetall 202 from the SPz Luchs and Marder along with an MG3 machine gun, the multinational NM135 was a cost effective solution to Norway’s need for an infantry fighting vehicle and armored reconnaissance vehicle that wouldn’t break the bank. With only 53 vehicles converted, it’s just as well they never had to break the Soviet Army. As usual for the Norwegians and Swedes, they apparently thought attrition was something that happens to other people and purchased accordingly.
While we’re on the subject of thrifty Norwegians, let’s take a look at the NM-116 Super Chaffee. After World War II, Norway got about 120 M24 Chaffee light tanks from the US as part of the Military Assistance Program. By 1972, those tanks were looking decidedly outdated, even in their intended reconnaissance role. Rather than go to the expense and trouble of replacing them with something new, the Norwegians opted to upgrade them. A modified M113 engine added 55 horses, a fire control system with laser rangefinder added considerable accuracy, and a French 90mm low pressure gun firing HEAT ammunition radically increased firepower. The old 75mm never managed much more than 110mm of armor penetration even at short range, the new 90mm could punch 320mm. The bow machine gun and gunner were removed in favor of more main gun ammunition while the old Browning .30 calibre coaxial machine gun was replaced with a M2 .50 cal. The vastly improved Super Chaffees soldiered on into the early 1990s, when the end of the Cold War finally brought an end to nearly 50 years of service.
Little tank, big gun
