Fate Of Stryker, Army's New Combat Vehicle, Will Be Set In Iraq

Post-Gazette ^ | September 28, 2003 | Jack Kelly

[archy]

Are you gonna let 19D's on your Tread Head Ping List?

Most of the 19Ds I've known are pretty knowledgable about armor charachteristics whether they're wheel or track mounted scouts. That was true back in my early treadhead days too, when scouts and ground surveillance personnel alike had the 11Delta MOS, back in the days of the days of the M114 and M551 Sheridan, and the M151 *Rollie-poly* gun jeep.

I haven't started keeping a list yet, but I guess I should. And they're on it if they want on it. SP arty redleg types would seem to apply too, as would Combat Engineer and Rome Plow jockeys and Marines with LVTP experience or interest.

-archy-/-

[archy]

I haven't started keeping a list yet,

Okay, we've got four on the list now,enough for a crew, so I'll keep it up unless anyone else wants to run it or would like to mirror it. Also applies to tracked vehicle mechs, tracked air defense artillery, armor historians, Patton fans and anyone else so inclined

Everybody's welcome to ride so long as you don't bitch about it being bumpy, noisy, dusty, smelling like Diesel and hydraulic oil, cold on one end and hot on the other, and move out of the way when I yell *Power*. And keep yer fingers out of the end connectors when the vehicle is in motion.

[CyberCowboy777]

PING

[RightWhale]

Russian wheeled personnel carriers got to Kosovo in 1999 faster than the Army's Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

In a highly scientific test, no doubt.

[Darksheare]

Wonder if the nice cheery arrangement of facing each other was a Shinseki design idea.
And eeks.
This really does remind me of the Sgt York, the difference being that the Sgt York was cancelled.

Can the seating arrangement be changed and the tipping problem be made less at all, I wonder.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I just happened upon this site and recommend it to you. It explains the politics behind the Interim Brigade Combat Team in terms of Northern Asian strategy. 3/2 was originally meant to relieve 2ID in Korea.

Click on Stryker/LAV III:

[Matthew James]

You forgot "three points of contact..."

Please add me to the list, Archy!

[archy]

You forgot "three points of contact..."

Please add me to the list, Archy!

You're on, as Number 5. That makes you the bowgunner....

-archy-/-

[Matthew James]

Many tanks!

[Thunder 6]

Well...maybe yes and maybe no. The SBCT wasn't (at least during the time I was read in) in anyone's warplan for the ROK. In fact, the IBCT concept came first, and then was pitched to the CINC's (oops, Combatant Commanders).

3/2 was nominally part of the 2nd ID, but really was a separate, that started out life there at Lewis as a BDE redeploying from FRG, and saw the parent Division (3 AD) go away as part of the drawdown/peace dividend. Same with 1/25...it began its life at Lewis as the 9th IN Reg from the 7 ID(L)...same thing happened: Parent Divison flag never made it from Ord. For a time in the 90's, the actual roundout BDE for 2ID(M) was an IN BDE from the Washington National Guard (same one fixing to get called now for Iraq).

Original concept of the IBCT was really SSC/SASO stuff like Bosnia and Kosovo.

Interesting website though...thanks.
regards,

[Thunder 6]

As long as I can continue to maintain this screenline next to the gasthaus...I'm in too!

regards,

[archy]

Wonder if the nice cheery arrangement of facing each other was a Shinseki design idea.

It'll work just fine for evacuating the Jessica Lynch-types should any real hostilities commence. Of course, the Stryker Front-Line Ambulance version only has room for two litter patients. Same as the 1960s M151 Jeep-based FLAs. Even the old Dodge ¾-ton crackerbox meatwagons could carry 4 patients in stretchers in back, plus two medics working on them.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Bow gunner? Shoot, make me the starboard sponson 6-pdr gunner.

[archy]

Russian wheeled personnel carriers got to Kosovo in 1999 faster than the Army's Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

In a highly scientific test, no doubt.

Or at least one other way BTRs and tracked BMDs can get there that Stynkers can't. Airdrop.

The BMD III carries antitank missiles and a 100mm main gun. Any bets on how well a Stryker platoon with .50 caliber MGs is going to come out against a mass airdrop of BMDs, 18 to the company, 60 per VMV battalion? The Russians drop their airborne vehicles with the crews inside them, ready to go, ready to fight. Per the BBC report on the Russian occupation of Pristina airport:

The Russian advance party took the airport unopposed. The world watched nervously.

A senior Russian officer, General Leonid Ivashev, tells the BBC how the Russians had plans to fly in thousands of troops.

''Let's just say that we had several airbases ready. We had battalions of paratroopers ready to leave within two hours,'' he said.

Amid fears that Russian aircraft were heading for Pristina, General Clark planned to order British tanks and armoured cars to block the runways to prevent any transport planes from landing.

General Clark said he believed it was ''an appropriate course of action''. But the plan was again vetoed by Britain. ... .

[Darksheare]

I just readthat the Stryker used excessive fuel due to the inability to use the auxillary power units due to 'safety concerns', but no reason for the safety concern was given..

Yes, it could make an excellentmobile field ambulatory, as long as it doesn't have to go offroading..

[RightWhale]

That's how Russia took Afghanistan before it turned into a quagmire. They are good, no doubt about it.

[archy]

Bow gunner? Shoot, make me the starboard sponson 6-pdr gunner.

Y'know, I'd rather go to war in a WWII Sherman or even a Grant than in a Stryker.

And it's not just the choice of tracks over wheels, either. I'd pick a ride to a fight in a WWII GBK M20 Grayhound first too, despite the mogas engines. At least the .50 atop an M20 worked okay.

Good for 55 mph [88 kph] or a little better, with a weight of 15,500 pounds/ 8 tons. [17,000 pounds for the turreted M8, pretty close to the weight of an up-armored M20]

Drop in a Diesel engine for a horsepower upgrade and for crew safety reasons, and you'd have an air-transportable intirm vehicle, and one with a .50 MG that works. The ring mounted gun would allow fitting both the .50 and a 40mm M19 at once, or deploying a 7,62mm M240 or Javelin from the ring mount. I imagine a twin-gun M249 could be worked up, too.

[RightWhale]

Grayhound

That's a decent recon car. Quick enough and small enough to get outta there if something big opens up. Not a bad choice.

[colorado tanker]

Sign me up, Archy!

A few months ago I was poking around the Imperial War Museum in London, which I would recommend to anyone hanging around the military/history threads. When I crawled around those old Brit and Gerry tanks I noticed that distinctive aroma that you know so well that tells you your're inside a tank. It seems to be universal.

[archy]

Sign me up, Archy!

Welcome aboard. Now we've got enough gunners and commanders for HQ company's tank section. Still need a few drivers and gunners, though.

-archy-/-