If that's all a C-17 can carry, I don't see the point of the Stryker. You can pack 10 time the HUMVEE mounted fire-power in that bird for a fraction of the cost. Or even one Bradley or M1.
The reason given for the cancellation of the Crusader self-propelled 155mm artillery piece [and more importantly, its equally high-performance ammunition support vehicle] was that only two could be carried aboard a C-17.
And so, given a choice between a full-tracked 155mm SP gun also mounting an M2 .50 Browning heavy MG, with the main gun having a range of 30+ miles, commanders can instead have their choice of an eight-wheeled armored car of similar size and bulk, which mounts only the .50 MG usable out to 1200 meters, or they can walk.
The usual loadout for the M113A3 personnel carrier in a C17 is five of the fully-loaded, 11-ton vehicles, which can also be airdropped from a C17- the Stryker can't. There's also a 1-meter longer stretched version of the M113 known as the MTVL, which can carry a squad of 11 over the Standard M113 or Stryker's 9-man squad, should a medic, combat engineer/EOD minesweeper, K9 operator or POWs need to be transported with the squad. The MTVL is also adaptablte to a somewhat wider range of armament than the parent vehicle, to include the now-experimental 8-shot ground launch Hellfire AT guided missile with a near 10KM tankkilling range.
And of course a mix of armored HUMVEEs and M113A3s in a C17 is very possible, and has been done dozens of times, probably hundreds- if not thousands. The M113A3 and MTVL are amphibious and can swim a river or lake; the HUMVEE of course, is not.
-archy-/-
