'Widow maker' Lav3 in army budget blowout

National Business Review ^ | June 10, 2004 | Nick Bryant

[Cannoneer No. 4]

He is only protected at those portions of his body the plates cover.

[KiaKaha]

Lonnie Shoultz did not write that article. It is written under the name of Nick Bryant in a magazine in New Zealand. What have they got to do with Strykers anyway?

Here is a novel idea, read a post thoroughly, The Nick Bryant article uses large portions of previous articles from Lonnie Shoultz, and as other people have already told you the Stryker is of the same family as the LAV 111, a vehicle the NZ Army has just purchased.

As to the second part of your post, grow up

[Steel Wolf]

The 101st ABN was not impressed. Lots of streets in Mosul Strykers can't get down.

I'm not a tanker, and Iraq was the first time I was given humvees to move my team around. I am not a mechanized guy by trade. That having been said, what I saw in 'Stryker country' was that those machines do not leave the wire unless they absolutely have to. For the time I was there I'd say that our two gunvees got way more 'face time' on raids than any Stryker.

I don't blame this on the Stryker drivers at all. They don't make the rules, and I'm sure that they'd like to get to do more than they do. But the word on the street is that losing Strykers will destroy OERs. Lots of OERs. Now, I can't speak to the merits or faults of the Strykers, but its clear that there are segments of the Army leadership that are fishing hard for good press.

[ExSoldier]

There was a post apocalyptic movie back in the '70's called "Damnation Alley" From this angle this looks like that super RV in the film. LOL Anybody got a pic of that?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[ExSoldier]

ROFLOL! That's it! Prototype STRYKER!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

What he H**l is that?

Tracks instead of wheels?

[gungadin]

VaBthang4 wrote I find it quite sad that any anti-Stryker whiner would want to use the criticism coming from such a limp wristed natio...err...source.

Steady.

Seems there's still a lot of debate amongst intelligent people re the Stykers abilities in the field, from every angle. I put a lot of weight on the post/s here from folk who have ridden them, worked in theatre with them. Me, I'm not an expert on LAV's but find the debate interesting at least.

centurion316 wrote ....propagandish screed from some commie-leftist newspaper in New Zealand that propagated complete nonsense about the Stryker Combat Vehicle. Of course, this leftist agenda merchant journalist....

The National Business Review is New Zealand's equivalent of "The Wall St Journal". Its interest in the NZLAV would have been prompted by the cost of purchase, and value for money. Note, (your post #64) that the National Business Review was not quoting a New Zealand newspaper.

Many here thought the NZ army should have retained a tracked upgrade path. These views would have been strengthened by the New Zealand Army's M113's going places in East Timor that Australian LAV's could not.

[TC Rider]

Zelazny Rules!

[Vetvoice]

New Zealand bought 105 of those junkers and soon realized what a blunder they had made. Currently they are using one half of their force for deployment and one half for training the follow-on crews.

[Vetvoice]

I’ve worked with both wheeled and tracked vehicles in combat. What I write reflects some of my experience. What is your experience? Be careful when you use cross oceanic adjectives like “bollocks.” Most do not know what it means so it applies to you s well as me.

[Vetvoice]

The New Zealand Royal Defense Force bought over 100 Strykers while watching ours roll over, bog down and really make asses of themselves. Now we cannot take it to Afghanistan because the roads are too small? WHAT? Did we build a fleet of land warriors that cannot leave the road?