The market for used U.S. military M113 armored personnel carriers and their retrofit components is expected to remain lucrative for the next decade.

Market analysis firm Forecast International says that given the state of military budgets around the world, upgrades to the APCs and acquisition of used M113s will be a more attractive option to investing in new production M113 vehicles from BAE Systems or its licensees.

The original M113 variant first came into service with the U.S. Army in the early 1960s and is still in use in more than 40 countries.

The U.S. Army has 14,000 M113-series armored personnel carriers but intends to retire them from active service by 2018. They are to be replaced by Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles.