In this 2021 photo, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle is tested at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground. U.S. Army / Mark Schauer
Army orders another $0.75 billion worth of Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles
New award brings total order for M113 replacements to nearly $1.6B.
The Army awarded BAE Systems a $754.3 million order for more Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles, or AMPVs, which are replacing aging M113 armored personnel carriers. The contract, announced Wednesday, sets an estimated delivery date of February 2027.
Low-rate initial production of the AMPV began in 2019; full-rate production began late last August, two years later than planned. The move to full-rate production came with an order of $797.7 million worth of AMPVs for delivery in early 2025. The contract also included an option for future orders that would bring the total value to $1.6 billion.
Wednesday’s order exercises that option. The contract does not say how many AMPVs are contained in the order, but budget documents indicate that the Army aims to acquire 91 AMPVs in fiscal 2024, 81 in fiscal 2025, 122 in fiscal year 2026, 122 in fiscal year 2027, and 87 in fiscal year 2029, at an average cost of $6.9 million a piece.
The Army, which had already taken delivery of 628 AMPVs before fiscal year 2023, aims to eventually buy 3,030 of them.
AMPVs come in several variants, including general purpose vehicles, medical support vehicles, mission command vehicles, and mortar carriers. BAE has also presented the vehicle as a modular system that could serve as a platform for short-range anti-air defense.
A report from the Congressional Research Service in March 2023 stated that the Army plans to acquire 2,897 AMPVs to replace M113s in the armored brigade combat teams, according to a March 2023 Congressional Research Service report. Armored brigade combat teams are a core unit in the Army’s offensive forces that consists of armored vehicles, infantry, artillery, and other support elements.
M113 variants typically account for around 30% of the tracked vehicles in an armored brigade combat team, according to an Army press release.
The Army first fielded the M113 in 1960 and has since purchased thousands of them in dozens of variants. The Army has sent 300 M113s to Ukraine; officials say they will be replaced with AMPVs.