Posted on 11/19/2003 4:21:18 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
The symbol of the Army's labored rebirth as a 21st century force will shortly face what could be a perilous battlefield baptism in Iraq.
The Stryker Brigade Combat team - the Army's most significant step in its metamorphosis from a ponderous Cold War behemoth to a lighter, quick force - is mustering now in Kuwait.
Built around a new, 19-ton vehicle that stands somewhere between a Humvee and a Bradley fighting vehicle, the 3,600-soldier brigade soon will roll north into Iraq.
There, they will join the Army's struggle to win a continuing conflict the brass did not foresee, using a vehicle untested in real-world combat and assigned a role for which it was not specifically designed.
"It will be a trial by fire. Literally," said Marcus Corbin, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
The Army is confident the $2 million Stryker will adapt smoothly to the dicey counter-insurgency campaign waged by U.S. forces, even though the vehicle was conceived to be used mostly in the early stages of a crisis to speed troops to battle and, later, for peacekeeping duties.
While Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has not been an enthusiastic booster, the nation's top uniformed officer recently sang its praises.
"I think what we'll see in Iraq is that this system, while not built for that contingency, is going to fit into the needs over there just perfectly," Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers said last month, shortly after taking a Stryker test ride at its home base at Fort Lewis, Wash.
But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, now a Pentagon military adviser, and critics on Capitol Hill, warn that the 38,000-pound, eight-wheeled vehicle is so lightly armored and armed that it could imperil the lives of the 11 troops each Stryker can carry.
A defense consultant prepared a scathing report on what he said were the Stryker's failings for Rep. James Saxton, R-N.J., a House Armed Services subcommittee chairman who has been the most vocal skeptic of the Stryker's worth.
Among other things, the report written by analyst Victor O'Reilly depicted the Stryker as being poorly armored and "entirely" vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire; so large it offers a too-easy target; unable to shoot on the move; over budget; cramped for those who ride in it; and too heavy to be carried very far by some military transport planes.
The Army acknowledges the Stryker has suffered growing pains, even though some of its early failings have been remedied. The battlefield debut comes just 16 months after contractor General Dynamics delivered the Strykers to the Army - an unusually short span.
Even so, the service contends the Stryker is well suited to the variety of roles it may play in Iraq - everything from infantry troop transport and reconnaissance to medical evacuation and combat fire support. The vehicle was named in honor of two unrelated heroes: Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker and Spc. Robert F. Stryker - who earned the Medal of Honor in World War II and Vietnam, respectively.
The Stryker was designed to get to any hot spot on the globe within four days - far quicker than the weeks it can take Army tanks and other heavily armored vehicles to reach a war zone. It also is fast and quiet on the ground, able to travel at 62 mph without the road-shaking rumbles that announce the approach of tanks and other larger vehicles that run on tracks.
The brigade is also equipped with aerial reconnaissance drones, satellite links, thermal sights and eavesdropping gear.
But the vehicle was not designed for the sort of guerrilla combat anti-coalition insurgents are mounting in Iraq. While it has more armored protection than the Humvees that are falling to enemy weapons almost daily, the Stryker was never meant for front-line warfare.
At most, it was built to withstand heavy machine-gun fire. Even that was in question when, in August, some of the ceramic tiles that form a critical layer of armored protection on the 309 Strykers now bound for Iraq were found to be defective. They will all be reinforced before the vehicles move north.
Like every other vehicle - and helicopter - already in use in Iraq, Strykers also are vulnerable to low-tech rocket-propelled grenades, a ubiquitous weapon which has been blamed for disabling mighty M-1 Abrams tanks.
To toughen the Strykers, slat armor that forms a sort of birdcage-like grille around the vehicle is being cobbled onto them. This protection is supposed to deflect the worst of an RPG's force before it hits its target.
But the addition of the new armor causes another problem - at nearly 5,000 pounds, it makes a Stryker too heavy to be flown on a C-130 transport, which calls into question the four-day deployment goal, according to analysts.
Still, the Army remains wedded to the Stryker, viewing it as a major step in its transformation, a process that critics have knocked as inchworm slow so far. Ultimately, the service wants to buy a total of 2,100 Strykers, at a cost that consultant O'Reilly estimated could reach $15 billion.
Congress isn't ready to sign off on building more; the brigade's performance under fire is likely to seal the Stryker's fate, analysts say. The Army, too, will be judged on its ability to march quickly into the 21st century.
"What's at stake is not just whether we build two more (brigades) of Strykers. What's at stake is how aggressively do we move to the future force," said Andrew Krepinevich, executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a defense think-tank in Washington.
(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL(at)shns.com or visit www.shns.com.)
If I recall correctly, those racks were derived from those previously used on the Israeli M2.M3 M16 White and IH halftracks, used to carry the M2 or M3 antitank mine, I believe. I'm going to go scrounge for pics. But as I recall, loads the size of a .50 or 20mm ammo can or a 5-gallon can could be carried in them....
Also see two pics here that can't be liked:
http://www.geocities.com/yosidov/Nagmash2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/yosidov/Handasa.jpg
Sorta looks like a jail for infantrymen, don't it....
-archy-/-
It's sort of a variation on the idea of *recon by fire*. But in this case, the idea appears to be to use infantrymen in Strykers as bait to draw fire from RPG gunners looking for an easy kill.
Maybe they'll get it, maybe they won't.
-archy-/-
How many windows, ditches, culverts and rooftops will these Strykers have to drive past on the way from A to B in Iraq? Every one can hide an RPG gunner.
The "proof" will come in 6 months or a year, and the grunts will tell us the answer. If the grunts are calling them rolling death traps and have to be ordered to ride inside them, and are trying to get into Brads or humvees, we'll know.
Ping to #16 AND #22. They go together.
I tried to make them easily printable, but if larger images are needed for a powerpoint presentation or 2404-7, [that number right?-it's been awhile]] I can manage that.
91 B, what's your unit's number and TO&E of vehicles? The tank battalion I got armtwisted into teaching our medic section tracked vehicle operation and maintenance after their Dodge crackerboxes were replaced with 4 M113A1 ambulances and a pair of M577 highboys for the battalion aid station and surgical suite did well enough with those six, but we kicked around a modified TO&E of 6 ambulances and using an M88A1 VTR with the booms and gin crane removed and reconfigured inside as a mobile aid station in a CBR enviornment. Thankfully, the need for that plan never came to pass. But we figured out where we could swipe the vehicles needed if it had gone down that way.
The dozer blade on the front also would have let us clear light jungle and brush to make our own medevac LZs. That's likely not a real big problem in Iraq....
Archy, I'd rather characterize the enemy as prey than say our guys are bait!
Recon by fire is not much used any more. The Stryker units, same as other units already in Iraq, will conduct deliberate attacks and raids whenever possible--those two missions are based on hard intelligence.
However, unless something changes, most operations will be based on projected enemy activities or locations based on "templating" past enemy activities or else on less specific intelligence. As well as recons and ambushes, those type of actions will include movement to contact, search & attack, or cordon and search; all of which are offensive operations designed to first find the enemy--either by spotting them first or when the enemy opens fire on our guys--and then attacking him.
For a combat unit such as a Stryker squad or section, when they make contact they will take either of two actions: 1--conduct hasty attack to destroy the enemy element or, if not possible 2--attack by fire with organic or supporting weapons to destroy the enemy or pin him down so that another unit can maneuver to close in on the enemy's flank or rear where they can kill or capture them.
Funny you should mention that....
Not sure where they'll put me if I transfer, but I worked with the ambulance section at AT 2 years ago in Kansas so I wouldn't mind working with them again. They also have 577s but I figure they'll set them up at some Brigade staging area and they'll never move. I know that one of the other companies in the FSB has M88s, but not the Charlie med. I think I can make some suggestions based on what you guys have shown me here and the link that Cannoneer #4 gave me from the other thread. The platoon SGT for the ambulance platoon in C/230th was my platoon SGT in HHC 1/119th (since riffed) and I think he will listen to me.
Yep. But that doesn't tell me what their TO&E mix of wheeled HUMMVEE ambulances to tracked M113A3s is. I know what it was in a circa-1980s US tank battallion, but that's even changed in the number of tanks as the platoon downsized from 5 M60A3 RISE tanks to four M1 Abrams...then to the M1A1. And I've stayed away from tank battalion band-aid tracks as much as possible since then. Last time I was around those crazies, they armtwisted me into going to work for them.
Better there than here. But even with them, the evidence is that there's a heckuva lot more that hit and run than there are that die in place.
How many windows, ditches, culverts and rooftops will these Strykers have to drive past on the way from A to B in Iraq? Every one can hide an RPG gunner.
OK. How is that different from what is going on in Iraq right now? And the 101st & 82d are moving in HMMWVs and 5-tons; a lot more vulnerable than Strykers. A big chunk of our tank crews have been put into HMMWVs as well.
The "proof" will come in 6 months or a year, and the grunts will tell us the answer. If the grunts are calling them rolling death traps and have to be ordered to ride inside them, and are trying to get into Brads or humvees, we'll know.
Very true. You never know about new types of equipment until it gets into combat. We were the very first to have the (at that time) new upgraded armored HMMWVS in combat--they sent two to us in Mogadishu and the very next day one had a hole through the windshield and within two weeks the other had to be towed in because of battle damage. Although they were an upgrade from regular wind-shields, canvas and aluminum; they still had limitations and our guys had to figure out what they were--just like the Stryker guys will.
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