Key facts about Italy’s upgraded M-113 delivery:
- Italy is sending VCC-1 “Camillino” variants with additional 6mm steel armor plating
- The vehicles will serve as battlefield ambulances rather than standard troop carriers
- Enhanced protection targets 7.62mm and 12.7mm rounds that penetrate standard M-113 aluminum
- Ukraine has received ~1,500 M-113s from allies but lost over 400 in combat operations
- Addresses growing threats to medical evacuation teams from drones and artillery fragments
In a welcome move, Italy isn’t just giving Ukraine prized M-113 armored personnel carriers—it’s giving Ukraine VCC-1s, upgraded versions of the classic “battle taxi” that one source described as “an Italian M-113 on steroids.”
The timing matters. Ukrainian medics are getting picked off by cheap suicide drones while trying to evacuate wounded soldiers from trenches. The VCC-1’s extra armor plating can stop drone fragments and small arms fire that punch through standard M-113 aluminum—exactly what evacuation teams need when they’re crawling within 200 meters of Russian positions to grab casualties.
The first photos of the vehicle reportedly en route to Ukraine recently circulated online.
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— A-129 Mangusta (@NichoConcu) September 18, 2025
Italian VCC-1 Camillino’s which have been out of service for many years now have been spotted being transported, months ago Italy pledged several “M113’s and variants” to Ukraine, so these are likely to be part of that pledge and are now on their way to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/AtTIrC4nJY
How NATO military vehicles help Ukrainian medics under Russian fire
The 12-ton, nine-person tracked vehicles are especially useful as ambulances. Fast, maneuverable, and easy to drive—and wrapped in just enough aluminum armor to offer some protection from artillery fragments and tiny explosive drones—the M-113s and their Italian kin can help medics fetch wounded troops from the front line … and speed them to lifesaving care at a battalion aid station.
Back in the spring, Rome pledged 400 M-113s “and variants” to Kyiv’s war effort.
Ukraine had already received around 1,500 American-designed M-113s plus hundreds of similar Dutch-made YPR-765s—and had lost no fewer than 400 of them in action all along the 1,100-km front line of Russia’s 43-month wider war on Ukraine.
The Ukrainians weren’t familiar with the M-113 prior to the wider war, although the type has been a stalwart of mechanized brigades in NATO armies for half a century.
The Ukrainian drivers in particular were pleased. The M-113 is much more user-friendly than the old Soviet BMP infantry fighting vehicle that many Ukrainian mechanized troops still ride in.
“I pay attention to the road, to what is being done around me,” one Ukrainian M-113 crew member said last year after gaining some experience on the M-113. “I don’t think about how to turn on a lower gear to go uphill, as I had to do on Soviet analogues.”
Why Italy’s VCC-1 upgrade matters for Ukraine’s battlefield medicine
The Italians’ super-upgraded M-113, the 1980s-vintage VCC-1, features key improvements over the baseline M-113. In particular, it has extra armor on top of the M-113’s usual armor, which ranges from 12 to 44 mm in thickness.
“To increase protection from 7.62-mm bullets, light [armored-piercing] rounds and 12.7-mm rounds, steel plates 6 mm thick were added on the sides and front of the vehicle,” Tank Encyclopedia noted.
The resulting vehicle is a few tons heavier than a standard M-113. Since Italian vehicle-maker OTO Melara didn’t add up-rated propulsion, instead keeping the M-113’s standard Detroit 6V53T diesel engine producing 275 hp.
But the downgrade is minimal. A vanilla M-113 makes 68 km/hr under ideal conditions; a VCC-1 makes 64 km/hr. Still pretty speedy for an APC.
The VCC-1 is a different beast on the inside.
“Due to the reduced internal space, the carrying capacity was reduced from 11 infantry to 7,” Tank Encyclopedia explained. “The remodeled rear compartment displaced the fuel tank, which placed them on the sides of the rear fighting compartment. This, coupled with the inclination of the rear walls reduced the internal space of the rear compartment.”
It’s not the roomiest possible ambulance, but it’s one of the more thickly armored.
Key VCC-1 improvements over standard M-113:
- Extra 6mm steel plating on sides and front
- Enhanced protection against 7.62mm and 12.7mm rounds
- Slightly reduced speed (64 km/hr vs 68 km/hr)
- Smaller crew capacity (7 vs 11 personnel)
- Optimized for medical evacuation missions
Ground robots start displacing manned evacuation teams on the battlefield
As the threat from tiny explosive drones intensifies, battlefield casualty evacuation has become more challenging. The medics and their evacuation vehicles are targets, too. It’s not for no reason that more and more Ukrainian brigades are deploying ground robots for the task.
New robot models can crawl up to a casualty, grab them with a hook or arm, and drag them onto a sled before speeding them to the nearest aid station. A robot “makes it much easier to work in all areas,” a trooper from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade explained.
But the ambulance ‘bots are a new development; for now, manned ambulances are still standard. And as ambulances, those Italian VCC-1s are better-protected than the M-113s currently handling many evacuation missions.
It’s also possible the Ukrainians will use the VCC-1s as assault vehicles, of course. With their heavier armor, the VCC-1s functioned as infantry fighting vehicles in Italian service.
