Posted on 09/28/2003 7:28:37 PM PDT by Ex-Dem
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:35:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Army is scrambling to fix a flaw in its newest armored vehicle -- the already troubled Stryker -- before sending it to Iraq next month for its first test in real combat conditions.
The Stryker is a 19-ton armored car that was supposed to combine the speed and quick deployability of light forces with considerable firepower and armor protection.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
That's a decent recon car. Quick enough and small enough to get outta there if something big opens up. Not a bad choice.
That's Greyhound to our British cousins, who also used several four-wheeled versions, both of their own design and the US twin-motored T17 *Staghound*
Yeah, the M20 was a fairly neat little vehicle. The Salvadorians fitted the quad fifty mount of the M55 AA gun, more usually seen in the back end of a Deuce-and-a-half or halftrack, and gave the little cars some teeth.
Back in the 1970s, I worked on an ordnance project to refit 20mm cannons in place of the M6 37mm gun of the M8, which gave the things a new life as internal security vehicles to some of those countries that had received the M8 and the M3 and M5 tanks as military aid.
It'd need upgraded armor on the front slope, a Diesel engine [I think a Detroit 6V17T conversion was available from the boffins in Minneapolis] and maybe clamshell personnel dors/ramps on the sides would bring it right up- to-date, then allowing the addition of some rolled chainlink for RPG screens. It wouldn't swim any better than a Stryker, but no worse, either, and less the RPG screens, you could get two, maybe three per C130 load.
They've been used as mortar vehicles, as well. And the French had one on display at Satory one year that had an AML turret with 90mm gun mounted....
I still remember how to set the headspace and timing on a M2 HB flex .50 caliber Browning.
Good news: the new FN quick-change barrell version has interchangable barrels; no headspacing required. Not sure about setting the timing, but I know an Ozzie ex-treadhead sandhat I can ask.
Even more interesting, there's a new XM312 .50 version under development very suitable for *free gun* and infantry use [42 pounds total- gun AND mount!] that can also supposedly be adapted to use a 25mm round as per the Bradley's Chain Gun- I think. There's also a reduced-power 25mm round being used in an adapted Barrett antimaterial rifle known as the *Payload Rifle* that may share its ammo with the 25mm/.50 MG.
I've also used one in combat....
Me too. Off tripods, in the M55 *quad .50 arrangement, off vehicle pintles, and in the aircraft version. I've never gotten to fly an aircraft that had fixed multiple .50s, but if you're good enough to get in close, they still have their uses, particularlky as a ground attack weapon and helicopter killer.
I vote for a Cummings in the M-8, tough engine, I've seen the bottom of the motor blown out and the damn thing still run long enough to get the crew out of trouble.
The Israelis used one Cummings Diesel as the replacement for the Hercules mogas engine in their M3 and M16 White halftracks. And, I think, a 500-HP Cummings Diesel in one version of their reengined Shermans.
All will be most groovy as long as I get to put the little red and white pennant on the antenna.
Red and white pennant? EEEEK! YANKEES!!!
Do not bet your life on that. Fullbore 12-gauge deer slugs [18.5mm] will knock holes through the CTIS-capable tire sidewalls large enough that the air compressor lines can't keep up with the pressure loss. And if RPGs are generally uncommon at present, heavy caliber rifles that will indeed knock holes in a Stryker's vulnerable spots are available; not just .50 target rifles, but up to and including 20mm Lahti and Solothurn AT rifles from early WWII, bear and moose hunting rifles in .338 Lapua magnum, .338 Winchester and the like, and other assorted goodies that will take care of anything up to and including a tank- including an Abrams.
And, of course, there are always mines, as the Iraqis have found out, and a flankside ramming from a light pickup with a couple of 5-gallon jerry cans of gasoline fixed on the front bumper and a 55-gallon or two more in the back would be no fun at all for those in either vehicle.
But so far as that goes, I doubt a 57mm M18A1 recoilless rifle from the Korean War of 55 years ago would have much trouble with Stryker armour or tyres.
Prior to this quiet inquiry I had heard of such BS being done, and I grabbed all of 'my boys' and we let it be known, loudly, that any idiot in a baby blue bonnet telling us to fire on our own countrymen would be riddled with holes.
We had one idiot, former Marine supposedly, state that 'h#ll yeah he would'.
Interesting. The way the question was put to me by the smiling 05 who's my endorsing officer, was whether or not I'd fire on US troops making war on US citizens.
After I told him that I'd not only fire on them, but bayonet them to make sure, run over them to set an example for my troops, and string the remains up from the nearest utility pole as a warning to other traitors, I not only got my usual attaboy, but another damn promotion and more damn paperwork.
But I've got some interesting ideas for skyblue beanies and helmets myself. Don't necessarily dismiss them out of hand....
-archy-/-
Hawai'i was selected for a squadron of Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs, the Air Force's latest-generation transport, because of its proximity to potential Asian and Pacific hot spots, and because the C-17s will be available to transport the $1.5 billion Stryker Brigade, a fast response unit that the Army is planning to base in Hawai'i.
The biggest change would be the need for more training lands in Wahiawa near Schofield Barracks and on the Big Island at Pohakuloa Training Area and a secondary road leading to it from the boat harbor at Kawaihae.
This would break down to the construction of seven new ranges, two airfield upgrades, 13 support facilities and 20 antennas. Construction would run through 2007, when the transformation is expected to be completed.
To meet the proposed changes the Army wants to:
Acquire 1,400 acres adjacent to Schofield Barracks to build a motor pool, artillery firing point, pistol and rifle ranges, and to build new roads.
Expand the use of PTA on the Big Island by no more than 23,00 acres to meet the needs of brigades new mobile cannons and purchase 109 acres to build a road from Kawaihae to PTA.
Construct 24 buildings as part of a mock city structure at the Kahuku training area to meet the divisions need to learn how to fight in urban terrain.
Upgrade the airfield at Wheeler Army Air Field in Wahiawa to accommodate C-130 operations.
Senator Shinseki is going to build MGS ranges whether MGS ever gets fielded or not.
The Combat Arms Survey was designed by Lt. Cdr. Guy Cunningham, USN as part of the requirements for his Masters Degree program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Montery, California.
The survey instrument was administered at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center, Twenty-Nine Palms, California, on May 10, 1994, by the researcher and an enlisted staff member of the Marine Corps Public Affairs Office (PAO). The survey was administered to 300 U.S. Marines, 293 enlisted, and 7 officers.
The purpose of the survey was to gather data on the attitude of combat-trained soldiers towards participating in non-traditional missions while under United States or United Nations operational command and control.
The survey contained 46 questions. The last question, question 46, produced startling and alarming results [See Question 46], and triggered an intense debate that still boils.
27. It is cruel to tell motorized infantrymen Damn, that Stryker looks like a BMP! particularly when live rounds are being issued."
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