First Air Force Stryker Unit Deploys to Iraq

[bemildred]

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --- The first Air Force Stryker unit marked its first deployment with the high-tech Army vehicle when it departed here Aug. 14 for Iraq.

About 20 Airmen from the 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron deployed with the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, both stationed at nearby Fort Wainwright.

---

The squadron provides a bird's-eye view of the battle for the battle commander by serving as the liaison between air and ground forces. They play a critical role in the 172nd SBCT mission, Colonel Smith said. Having specially modified TACP armored Stryker vehicles offers more top cover for Army ground troops.

"We are the Air Force experts at the ground commander's right hand"; Colonel Smith said. "Without airpower expertise on the battlefield, we leave the great American Soldier on the ground exposed. The Army has transformed into an agile and light fighting force, but in doing so, it has become far more reliant upon air power."

defense-aerospace

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Does anyone else realize that Stryker is a 1st Strike invasion weapon

not intended for protracted actions against deeply dug-in insurgency actions in building to building fighting?

No one expects us to reinvade Baghdad, huh?

Let's see that leaves us with _ _ _ _

[achtung_circus]

2. I'm calling bullshit on that one.

The Stryker fills the middle ground between a Hummer and a tank.

The US army has pulled it's collective head out of it's butt and realized that they are not fighting the Cold War anymore.

The Stryker is based on a Canadian vehicle, everyone knows those pesky Canucks are first strike force of choice when it comes to world domination.

Now, how the US Army gets USED, that's a whole other discussion.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. a vehicle yes, but its communications

and battlefield awareness were designed for first strike capabilities.

Look it up in Janes.

[achtung_circus]

4. Any technical advantage

has implications. Battlefield awareness has been around for a long time. The Stryker is NOT capable of a "first strike" against any kind of a prepared defender. It's a fast, wheeled vehicle offering modersate protection to infantrymen, plus a range of support systems and vehicles.
:tinfoilhat:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. I am not arguing, but why was it sold and promoted in the 1990s

as a way to bring a first strike force into the 21st century, combining sat intel, mapping, artillery, radar, air and helicopter support and ground support for an INVADING force against an entrenched enemy or a enemy's mobile army attempting to interfere with our invasion?

The PR video and promotions had desert, mountain and hilly terrain in mind (post Kuwait and Desert Storm) when congress was considering cutting funding,(but eventually relented).

It does NOT appear to be well suited for an enemy which hides in the open, plants mines each night, comes near your with car bombs or attacks with RPGs, snipers and roughly aimed mortar.

Of course, there is the acronym, STRYKER, which the Pentagon picked precisely for its emotional impact.

[achtung_circus]

6. The Futuer Combat System was first floated

as Army "transformation" from the armour-heavy divisions thought to be required for battle against the Warsaw Pact to a lighter, more flexible brigade-based system.

With the exit of the Warsaw Pact the US armed forces looked poised to devolve to the more traditional American system where the bulk of peacetime combat troops were in the Marine Corp, often called State Department troops". The Army ramped up from a peacetime cadre only in time of war. Well, that wouldn't provide the careers necessary, so the Army went looking for "Transformation".

The "new" lighter, more flexible force would be used in any environment. As a new program, it would of course include as much technological improvement as possible. The "interim" brigades on this road are equipped with the Stryker.

The US military has a prediliction for "tough" names. The Stryker has the double benefit of sounding tough but is used to "honour" two non-related American soldiers. On that tangent, code words should be, and used to be, chosen for their innocuous nature, providing no clues to the nature of the operation from the name. Iraqi Freedom?

It's not the system- it's the use to which the politicians choose to put that system.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. thanks.

I suspect that good communications and intel can be adapted to urban warfare as well. Which is probably at least one of the purposes.

But if it is a lightly armored vehicle, will it also require retro-fitting like other transport devices in use there?

[achtung_circus]

8. More

To provide better protection against RPGs the Stryker is fitted with a cage-type arrangement to detonate warheads before they impact (and penetrate) the armour.

<http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/iav.htm>

and for some video:
<http://www.army.mil/professionalvideo/movies/stryker_movie.html>

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. light infantry?

"Add-on armor for the Stryker adds approximately 7,000 lbs to the vehicle weight and approximately 12-14 inches to each side. To accommodate the increased weight, the tires were inflated to 90 psi and the Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS) was disengaged. As the vehicles moved from a hard surface to a softer one (in a grove of trees) the vehicle's tires sank into the soft ground. The winch on the Stryker is not sufficient to recover a Stryker with add-on armor mounted; therefore, some other vehicle recovery asset must be used.

Another challenge was the problem moving the vehicles down narrow two-lane roads while they had the add-on armor on the Strykers. The vehicles were unable to pass side by side. One driver had to pull off the road to make room for the other vehicle to pass. When he did this, the vehicle would sink into the dirt and require another vehicle to recover it. This made it important for the battalion staff and company-level leaders to ensure that they did detailed mission planning and route selection to reduce the possibility of two vehicles passing. While this does not appear to limit maneuver, it could cause temporary loss of momentum."

What a litany of trouble and problems.
My spouse owns a 9mm hand gun and a shotgun (she was threatened by an ex) which can fire slugs. I have seen her shoot through 14 mm of sheet steel with that gun. Loud, too,
The caliber the article discusses is not much higher, although i suspect that military rounds achieve a much higher muzzle velocity.

[achtung_circus]

10. Link for context?

The Stryker is not all things to all people. It is also a new to the US system with teething troubles.

I know that I've ridden with our (Canadian)troops who use the vehicle on which Stryker is based and they love it.

<http://www.sfu.ca/casr/101-vehlav.htm>

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. SORRY.

I was refering to the caliber of bullets they hoped the skin of the stryker could survive - 14.4 mm.

that is about 50% larger than a lady's handgun.

[achtung_circus]

12. I was interested in the context

for the mobility constraint quotations.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. that came from the article you cited, I simply quoted a part

I found rather interesting.

I recall that when the M1 tank was first designed, and considered for deployment in Germany, they realized that the bridges throughout Deutchland could not either support the size, nor the weight of these tanks. But they were pretty cool tanks. Still are.

If I recall, the problem was solved by Guess!

(you HAVE to think military, now,)






building new bridges throughout Germany.

[dcfirefighter]

14. Bad Stryker

too heavy to fly in C130
too light to replace M1/M2 heavy divisions
lots of good electronics - could go in any platform
$50/mi operating cost
better than a humvee for iraq
not as good as M2
canadian version is like USMC LAV - used as recon, light transport
USA version is much heavier & better armored - hindering it's cross country ability, while still not being good enough to be RPG proof.

But, Shineseki said, "we'll have a wheeled army" and so it was.

Should have gone with light tracks.

Any weapons system can be used for offense or defense - 4th gen warfare generally doesn't have battle lines.