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There is no substitute for a tank, and the Stryker is just another case of the Army designing a square peg to fit a round hole. Plus, Strykers are sure to shot up by our own guys mis-identifying them as BTR's.

The solution of the whole problem is not waste time and money trying to develope IFVs. We need to develope fast, drive-on, drive-off sealift that can load and deliver a heavy armored division to any coast in the world at the same speed a carrier task force can deploy. Our big deployment problem isn't that our tanks are too damn big, it's that we don't have adequate sea-lift, and the Navy doesn't like spending money on transportation/non-combat ships.

We need to develop fast, drive-on, drive-off sealift that can load and deliver a heavy armored division to any coast in the world at the same speed a carrier task force can deploy.

We already have Fast Sealift Ships. The ships can travel at speeds of up to 30 knots and are capable of sailing from the U.S. East Coast to Europe in just six days, and to the Persian Gulf via the Suez Canal in 18 days, thus ensuring rapid delivery of military equipment in a crisis. Combined, all eight Fast Sealift Ships can carry nearly all the equipment needed to outfit a full Army mechanized division. The Fast Sealift Ships are roll-on/roll-off ships equipped with on-board cranes and self-contained ramps which enable the ships to off-load onto lighterage while anchored at sea or in ports where shore facilities for unloading equipment are unavailable. The vessels are specially suited to transport heavy or bulky unit equipment such as tanks, large wheeled vehicles and helicopters.

With speeds up to 33 knots, they are the fastest cargo ships ever built.

Pics of USNS Algol

We have plenty of sealift, but ships are slow and vulnerable and nobody has the patience to wait while the sealift is activated, manned, loaded and in transit.

Seems like 2 or 3 of these Fast Sealift Ships could haul an M1 & Bradley-mounted Armored Cavalry Regiment. Park an embarked Armored Expeditionary Force in Perth and another in Djibouti and they could bring down hellfire and scunnion on whoever deserved it in less than a week

*That* is perhaps the most insightful comment on the entire thread.

The bottom line is that no Strykers or M-113s are going to get deployed by air, or at best a vanishingly small number. Improving seaborne mobility is likely where the easiest leverage is to be found.