Free Republic

"The Army's new car is a lemon." That's how former U.S. Treasury fraud investigator and Special Forces trooper Lonnie Shoultz describes the U.S. Army's newest armored vehicle, the Stryker. Worse, he says, it is becoming an expensive lemon. Shoultz, a Vietnam combat veteran with the 101st Airborne Division and former Green Beret, as well as an experienced government fraud investigator, has long been vocal in his criticism of the Stryker, as well as the process the Army used to procure it. He's not alone in his assessment. Other military analysts and experts have also come out against the implementation of...

With new focus on the revolving door between the Pentagon and defense contractors, another case deserves further scrutiny: The January 2000 hiring of former Army Lt. General David K. Heebner by General Dynamics Corp., and the subsequent award 11 months later of a $4 billion contract to General Dynamics to build the Army's Stryker Interim Armored Vehicle. POGO has learned that the Pentagon's top independent tester warned the Secretary of the Army that the vehicle should not be deployed in Iraq because it is vulnerable to rocket propelled grenades. As one of Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki's top...

The U.S. Army's newest armored vehicle is fraught with operational problems and physical limitations that make its predecessor not only a much better choice for soldiers, but one that may be more deployable and have better battlefield survivability, say weapon-systems analysts and military critics who have studied the issue.