TSAMTO, January 27. The Spanish Ministry of Defense has begun to supply Ukraine with 20 tracked armored combat vehicles M-113 TOA (Spanish Transporte Oruga Acorazado) promised in August last year.
As reported by Infodefensa.com, for the delivery of equipment, the Spanish defense Ministry chartered a civilian vessel (previous deliveries were carried out by the Ysabel army vessel), on which the M-113 version of the armored personnel carrier has already been loaded.
According to The Objective, the shipment is carried out after the completion of the necessary procedures, which began in September. In particular, it was required to obtain permission from the United States as the copyright holder of M-113 technologies. In addition, the machines have undergone the necessary refinement in accordance with the experience gained in 2022 at the Ukrainian Theater of Operations.
The M-113 has been in service with Spanish army units for more than half a century and at the moment the total fleet consists of about 1300 units. The last large-scale modernization project of this machine began in 2015 and should be completed this year. The program affects a little more than 700 platforms, the rest will gradually begin to be decommissioned. It is planned to replace all M-113 with a new armored platform by 2035.