Stryker.

This coolbert:

The U.S. Army is currently fielding and operating Stryker brigades in Iraq. These Stryker brigades are part of an entirely new concept that the Army hopes represents a successful future.

Futurists have made it abundantly clear that what the U.S. Army needs are units that can deploy to a "hot" war zone, anywhere in the world, and do so with rapidity. Rapidity to greatly influence the situation as it exists on the ground, units employing an abundance of organic firepower. U.S. Army units just be more flexible, responsive, mobile, and deployable.

The Stryker brigades are seen as a solution. The goal is to have a Stryker brigade fully air deployable and be able to reach any part of the world within 96 hours [four days].

[One of the arguments against the U.S. Army heavy divisions [tank and mechanized infantry], is that they take too long to reach the battle area, where ever that battle area may be. Loading a heavy division, with all its’ impedimenta, tanks, Bradley vehicles, self-propelled artillery, etc., on ships and sending that division to a foreign battlefield, such as Iraq, just takes too long. Stryker brigades are seen as overcoming this problem.].

These brigades, probably more correctly identified as a cross somewhere in between a heavy and light infantry brigade, will be reliant upon the Stryker vehicle. An infantry fighting vehicle [IFV] that provides armored protection with mobility for troops [the Stryker will defeat a 14.5 mm round [.57 caliber]]. [I hope someone has taken into consideration the possibility of reinforcing the armor of the Stryker at some point with reactive armor of the "Blazer" variety for additional protection. [This HAS been taken into consideration]]

A number of configurations of the basic Stryker vehicle [a troop carrying armored vehicle mounting a .50 machinegun [variants include the 40 mm grenade launcher. MG and grenade launcher can be remotely operated from within the vehicle]] are available.

These variants include:;

* A mortar firing variant.

* A direct fire gun variant using the 105 mm gun found on the early versions of the Abrams tank. This seems to be a valid concept. Strip the guns off the Abrams, which are being upgraded to a 120 mm gun, and use the 105 mm gun in the Stryker gun system. A cheap and dirty way to success.

* An anti-tank variant.

* A command variant.

* A recon variant.

* A NBC recon variant.

* A Medevac variant.

Comments on the Stryker vehicle and the entire concept of the Stryker brigade.

The concept of the Stryker brigade seems to be valid. The Stryker brigade will allow the U.S. Army to "project power" quickly to any part of the world. It will take 217 C-17 transport sorties to move the entire brigade. A brigade that will have the capability to go almost instantly into combat possessing firepower and mobility with protection!!

Of special interest should be that Stryker vehicle mounting the 105 mm gun.

This type of combat vehicle is a throwback to the days of the assault gun. A weapons system employed widely in World War Two [WW2]. A weapons system that has been obsolete in the American inventory for many decades now [since the end of WW2??].

This Stryker gun will provide support to the infantry in the assault, while offering protection against enemy tanks at the same time. This gun bears similarity to the Buford gun, a tracked direct fire gun that was also conceived as a weapons system that would provide direct fire support to light infantry units [the Buford gun project was scrapped before it was fielded].

Within the TO&E of a Stryker brigade:

A Stryker brigade does possess it's own organic indirect fire support artillery battalion.

The Stryker brigades do NOT have their own organic air support, i.e., helicopter gunships!

One constant refrain against wheeled armored vehicles such as the Stryker is that the wheels will be too greatly stressed by close-by impacting enemy artillery rounds. The wheels will be knocked OFF!! Will this be the case? Don't know! I do know that the U.S. Army used to have in it's arsenal the V-100 Cadillac Commando. A wheeled armored vehicle used by MP's in Vietnam for convoy escort duty. Of course, in Vietnam, these V-100 presumably were not subject to artillery bombardment. Perhaps a Stryker vehicle or two could be sacrificed for the purpose of testing this alleged "flaw".

One big advantage of the Stryker IFV would have to be that it is a brand new vehicle, employing the latest technological advancements in cross-country mobility and armor protection. NOT a refurbished or hybrid vehicle such as the Bradley. The Bradley, the current Army IFV [and a successful one too!!] is based upon the hull and chassis and drive train of the much earlier M113 APC [armored personnel carrier]. The basic M113 was chopped, channeled, redesigned, and rebuilt to create the Bradley. The Stryker is a totally brand-spanking new vehicle. This has to be an advantage in the area of maintenance alone.

With the Stryker, the vision of Basil Lidell-Hart of totally self-contained armor units operating independently, moving cross-county at will against adversaries, much as a flotilla or armada of ships at sea would operate may come closer to fruition.

Basil Lidell-Hart in the years between the First and Second World Wars, argued for units consisting exclusively of tracked vehicles. Units unconstrained by road networks. Units that could operate in a fashion of the horse cavalry of old, moving cross-country at will with great speed, unimpeded by ordinary obstacles, striking at the enemy from almost any direction with impunity.

To what extent the Stryker brigades are capable of operating in such a fashion is unclear. It appears from provisional TO&E's that I have seen that the Stryker brigades possess a mix of vehicles as seen in conventional Army units. NOT exclusively consisting of the Stryker vehicle. NOT possessing in the exact fashion the capability as conceived by Lidell-Hart!!

Please do not think of these Stryker brigades as a be-all and end-all. They are a part of the whole. And will have to be for some time to come too. Offer a part of the solution to a problem with forethought.

coolbert.