Italy Empties the Garage: 400 M113s Headed to Ukraine

A US Army M113-OSV Armored Personnel Carrier of 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment provides an overwatch while conducting recon operations during exercise Allied Spirit at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Jan. 26, 2015. Exercise Allied Spirit included more than 2,000 participants from Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the US. Allied Spirit exercised tactical interoperability and tested secure communications within Alliance members. (US Army photo by Spc. Tyler Kingsbury/Released) Public domain

It finally happened. Italy just cleaned out its Cold War garage and sent Ukraine the keys.

On May 17, 2025, Rome announced its 11th military aid package to Ukraine, headlined by 400 M113 armored personnel carriers and an unspecified satellite surveillance system. For those keeping score, this is the same M113 I tore into in 2022 for being a thinly armored relic better suited to museum duty than modern warfare.

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And yet, here we are: 400 more aluminum boxes on tracks are heading to the front lines.

But here’s the twist: if Ukraine uses these things the right way, read: not as tanks, they could actually be a huge help.

The M113: Half Personnel Carrier, Half Rolling Target

If you gave a toaster treads and told it to carry troops, you’d basically have the M113. It’s a product of a different era, back when aluminum armor seemed like a genius idea and the notion of improvised…