this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Perhaps the most underrated armored vehicle in Ukraine's arsenal is the M1117, not Ukraine's fault, for one thing the V-100 Commando is an old machine with a long confusing history, variously referred to with vague names in its current form... "The Commando Select", "ASV Guardian", "M1117" none of the names stick out and the unremarkable look of the vehicle makes it instantly forgettable.

For another, the M1117 was supposed to be the next generation Humvee that addressed its lack of protection against mines and small army. Unlike the humvee, the M1117 was genuinely optimized for diffuse conflicts and security operations over large areas where mines, improvised explosives and crew served weapons posed the primary threat.... which seems like it should be a good thing but the US military during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars saw that kind of warfighting as a threat, a box that civil society could force the military into, and endlessly hammered on about needing to prepare for a war against China even as the US was still deeply enmired in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As such, the M1117 represented a very good solution that was fundamentally unwanted at the time. It didn't help that right when production was most needed Hurricane Katrina knocked out one of the main factory complexes in Louisiana and as a result the proliferation of MRAPs rushed into fill the gap.

To understand why the M1117 ASV Guardian is such an important armored vehicle design you really have to understand the tension between MRAP design philosophy and APC design philosophy. They both have disadvantages and advantages, MRAPs being traditionally better at diffuse security operations against irregular forces and APCs being better at fullscale armored warfare. The M1117 more than any other currently existing armored vehicle represents an intelligent compromise between those two extremes while being far more affordable, mass producible, up-armorable and heavily equipped in weapons capability while still remaining airliftable in a combat ready loadout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1117_armored_security_vehicle

The US military wants to believe the future of organic troop transport looks like the M1301.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1301_infantry_squad_vehicle

Which it certainly does, but I think the US military is making the same mistake they originally made with settling on the Humvee, high mobility vehicles are existentially necessary and yet armor is always useful, even if it isn't the heaviest.

65 M1117s for Ukraine isn't going to change the war, but I am glad Ukraine is getting its hands on more of these vehicles, they represent an important evolution of western armor design in the armored car/apc/MRAP hybrid realm and experience with the M1117 will certainly influence future Ukrainian armor design and procurement decisions in a positive way.

this "Weapons Of Victory" video from a month ago shows off a Ukrainian M1117

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=zkNkfnea8Tk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkNkfnea8Tk

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