The Armed Forces of Ukraine have been for the first time spotted with a new vehicle based on the M113 armored personnel carrier, as noted by the Ukraine Weapons Tracker community.
The finding is no other than the German artillery reconnaissance vehicle called the Beobachtungspanzer. In the video below, it tows a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle but its intended role is to adjust artillery fire. For that purpose, the vehicle is equipped with a laser rangefinder, navigation and optical systems.
Read more: Germany to Increase the Number of PzH 2000 for Ukraine, No Longer Reason Not to Supply Leopard 2
So far, there was no official data on which country could give these vehicles to Ukraine, and how many. Germany, in fact, decommissioned their Beobachtungspanzers back in 2002 thus it might be the candidate.
Though, the OSINT community providing the footage assumes these vehicles could have possibly come from Lithuania: as a reminder, this country has a number of used "ex-German" M113s in variety, and two of them in the "fire control tank" modification were going to Ukraine in an earlier announcement by the Lithuanian defense minister.
At that time, the batch of Lithuanian aid also included 10 self-propelled 120mm mortar systems Panzermörser M113 – as the name suggests, it is yet another variant of the M113.
In general, the Armed Forces of Ukraine has by now received hundreds of M113 variations, according to official data. Ukrainian warriors have already gave them a go and shared their thoughts on which way the M113 is better than the Soviet BMP vehicle.
Read more: Ukraine’s Military Told How the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier Is Better In Combat Than the Soviet BMP
