M59 armored personnel carrier

The M59 armored personnel carrier was built by the Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation (FMC) of the United States, type-classified in May 1953 and entering service in the spring of 1954. It offered three advantages over its predecessor, the M75: it was amphibious, had a lower profile, and was considerably cheaper to produce, using twin GMC engines of 146 horsepower each, a welded steel hull, torsion bar suspension, and rubber seals on all hatches and doors together with a trim vane for its amphibious role, reaching about 4.3 miles per hour in water and 32 miles per hour on roads with a 120 mile operational range. It carried a crew of two plus ten passengers, and roughly 6,300 were built between 1953 and 1960 before being superseded by the M113 family.