This is going to be a "hot button" topic for both old and new Armd soldiers everywhere. Whether or not an MBT can be replaced by a wheeled variant isn‘t the question. The questions raised should deal with "when" we get the ?Wombat? what will it‘s role be? There is no established doctrine for employment of this vehicle! :tank: From that question comes many more. At the individual crewman level, it becomes a matter of how best to employ individual skills as part of a well trained, disciplined and effective crew, which is part of a well trained, disciplined and effective larger organization such as troop, squadron, regiment, or whatever. Effective use of whatever equipment, vehicles, munitions, weapon systems we are dealt is the mark of a professional soldier. Ive just read an article about the Stryker Bde deployed in Iraq. I‘ll post it here.
Quick-Hitting Brigade Test-Drives a New Army Vehicle in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT
SAMARRA, Iraq, Dec. 24 — The United States Army is betting much of its future on the success of an unlikely new warrior: an ungainly 19-ton wheeled combat vehicle wrapped in a steel-grilled hoop skirt.
Here at the edge of the Iraqi desert, the vehicle‘s combat debut is unfolding with the Army‘s first Stryker Brigade combat team. This much-debated $10 billion experiment aims to field as many as half a dozen 3,600-soldier units equipped with these high-tech, lightly armored vehicles that can speed infantry to a fight.
Unlike an Abrams tank or a Bradley fighting vehicle, the Stryker is a medium-weight, eight-wheel vehicle that can carry 11 soldiers and weapons at speeds of more than 60 miles an hour. With its giant rubber tires instead of noisy tracks, it is fast and quiet and draws on the brigade‘s reconnaissance drones, eavesdropping equipment and the Army‘s most advanced communications gear to outflank an enemy rather than outslug it.
Critics of the system, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, say the Stryker is a risky gamble that could leave American soldiers vulnerable to guerrilla attacks. But proponents in the Army say it is an alternative to light infantry and heavy armored forces in the shift from a heavy cold-war arsenal to a more agile, mobile force that can be dispatched quickly to hot spots around the world.
The Stryker, supporters contend, also fits the new American blueprint for war: use an array of sensors to pinpoint an enemy, share that information through satellite links, and quickly direct precision firepower on that target.
"The strength of our engagements in the future is the ability to gather, see and share information rapidly across the battle space," said Col. Michael Rounds, a West Point graduate and a native of Greene, N.Y., who commands the brigade, formally known as the Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division.
Originally conceived to rush troops to battle in the early days of a conflict and, later, to assume peacekeeping duties, the Stryker Brigade has been thrown into a counterinsurgency role in Iraq for which it was not specifically designed. It is adapting on the fly.
"Obviously, this is a big experiment," said Michael O‘Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "This is going to be Stryker‘s real-world test."
The Stryker has already weathered a wave of criticism. A report prepared by a defense consultant earlier this year for Representative H. James Saxton, a New Jersey Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said the Stryker was vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades, an easy target for any hostile forces and too cramped for gear-laden soldiers.
The Stryker has more armor than a Humvee and is equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun and a grenade launcher (an antitank variant has heavier weapons), but it was never intended for front-line combat. The vehicles, which cost $2 million each, were built to take a hit from a heavy machine gun, but confidence in that capability was shaken last summer when some of the ceramic tiles that form the protective skin on the brigade‘s 309 Strykers were found to be faulty. Army officials say they have fixed the problem.
Like almost every other combat vehicle and helicopter here, the Stryker is susceptible to rocket-propelled grenades. So General Dynamics, the Stryker‘s manufacturer, built a protective grille, called slat armor, that is bolted onto the vehicle. It is designed to deflect a grenade‘s explosive blast before it reaches the Stryker‘s ceramic skin, but it has yet to face the ultimate test here.
The new armor also adds 5,000 pounds to the vehicle, making it too heavy to be flown on an Air Force C-130 transport and calling into question whether the brigade can live up to its billing of being deployable anywhere in the world within four days.
That capability was not tested when the brigade rolled up from Kuwait this month, but Stryker soldiers and commanders say the vehicle is well suited for missions like guarding checkpoints, patrolling urban streets and rushing soldiers to raids on suspected insurgent hide-outs. The vehicle is named after two unrelated combat heroes who earned the Medal of Honor, Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker in World War II and Specialist Robert F. Stryker in Vietnam.
Before leaving for Iraq, the brigade received 30 days of training at Fort Irwin, Calif., and Fort Polk, La., and 10 more days at its home base, Fort Lewis, Wash. "They‘ve put us through every training situation imaginable," said Sgt. First Class Max McLaughlin, 39, a platoon sergeant from Olympia, Wash.
With the cost of fielding each brigade now at about $1.5 billion, the Army is not cutting any corners in seeking the unit‘s success. It is even spending $9 million on individual gear for the soldiers, like kangaroo-leather gloves and custom-designed uniforms with built-in knee and elbow pads. "The Army has set this unit up to do well," said First Lt. Leonardo Flor, 23, a platoon leader from Leavenworth, Kan.
Still, there have been setbacks. Shortly after the brigade moved into Iraq with its Strykers, three soldiers died when two of the vehicles flipped into a rain-swollen irrigation ditch.
Then, two Strykers were attacked by roadside bombs. One vehicle was destroyed by fire and the other lost a tire but kept going. Only one soldier was injured, and commanders say the incidents show the vehicle‘s survivability.
The brigade passed its first combat test on Dec. 15 when a patrol thwarted a complex ambush and, with help from other soldiers, waged a 45-minute firefight in Samarra, a hotbed of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader. Soldiers came under fire from mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and gunmen on motorcycles, but suffered no casualties or damage to the vehicles. Stryker commanders said 11 attackers were killed.
Since then, the eastern half of this city of 250,000 people that the brigade oversees has been largely quiet, commanders say. They think the insurgents have fled or are lying low until the brigade moves on.
Three truckloads of weapons, including 271 AK-47‘s and 412 grenades, as well as 47 detainees, have been seized since Dec. 10. "We‘re cleaning up the town and trying to set the conditions so we can turn it over to the Iraqi people," said Lt. Col. Rob Choppa, of Glens Falls, N.Y., the deputy brigade commander.
On two missions this week — one a night patrol here and another a raid against a suspected recruiting center in a nearby town — Stryker soldiers showed the system‘s versatility.
Soldiers spend a lot of time inside the vehicles, and many have customized their cramped interiors with coffee pots, stereo systems and even small television sets to watch DVD‘s during lulls. On their way to their predawn raid on Tuesday, Sgt. Billy Parker, 23, of Clemson, S.C., and Sgt. Anthony Glover, 31, of Los Angeles, both from Company C, Fifth Battalion, 20th Infantry, studied a laminated sheet of useful Arabic phrases, including the phrase for "Shut up!"
Some soldiers shrugged off criticism of the Stryker‘s vulnerabilities but others showed concern. "I‘d feel better if we‘d gone in after they‘d tested it more," said Specialist Jake Herring, 20, of Kirkland, Wash.
During an early-morning patrol on Wednesday, Strykers from Company A disgorged soldiers who fanned out into streets and alleys, the vehicles following at a distance.
Inside his command vehicle, Capt. Eric Batchelor, the 30-year-old company commander from Barnesville, Ga., monitored his vehicles‘ movements on a digital mapping system, ready to reposition them quickly at the first sign of trouble or fresh intelligence. Stryker vehicles are blue icons on the screen. Opposing forces are marked in red. Every soldier on the ground had a radio, and the patrol columns moved silently through deserted streets.
Suddenly, an insurgent‘s .50-caliber machine gun barked three times, and Stryker radios crackled. By the time a team rushed inside a building, the attacker had fled into the night. The 12-hour patrol detained one person after finding rifles, a submachine gun and bomb-making material.
"We‘re on the threshold of something new," Captain Batchelor said afterward. "We‘re making history."
