STRYKER FIGHT RAGES

With Fallujah largely under U.S. con­trol, the epi­cen­ter of the fight­ing in Iraq has shifted to Mosul, in the north. And return­ing to action there is one of the most con­tro­ver­sial cards in the American military’s deck — the Stryker light armored vehi­cle.
When the Strykers were first being intro­duced to the Army, in 2002, they were damned for a vari­ety of sins — it’s armor wasn’t thick enough; it couldn’t hit tar­gets on the run; it’s wheels went flat too eas­ily; and, boy, could it get hot inside.
Now that they’ve been in use for a while, Stars & Stripes declares that “the naysay­ers have been con­verted… The vehi­cles are almost too good to be true, say those who ride them, fix them or com­mand them.“
But doubters still remain. USAR Lt. Mike Sparks has long been one of the Stryker’s most vocal crit­ics. And he’s still con­vinced that the vehicle’s “air-​​filled rub­ber tires” are trou­ble. Previous per­son­nel car­ri­ers, like the Gavin 113s, had tracks, which were a whole lot more durable. Wheels, on the other hand, are awfully suc­cep­ti­ble to road­side bombs. “Would you go into com­bat with your fam­ily car?” he asks.
But Staff Sgt. Lee Hodges, with the Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron of the 14th Cavalry, says not to worry. “Ive seen Strykers be hit by an [impro­vised explo­sive device] and drive home on eight flats,” he tells Stars & Stripes.
The con­tro­versy con­tin­ues. Over the week­end, the Defense Department inden­ti­fied two sol­diers, attached to the Stryker brigade, who were killed by a mor­tar strike in Mosul.
THERE’S MORE: Defense Tech pal CA doesn’t see how the Stryker “con­tro­versy” and the recent mor­tar strike in Mosul are lnked.

The indi­vid­ual was killed in his liv­ing area, not in a Stryker. Just because he was killed while attached to a Stryker brigade doesn’t make their deaths a Stryker con­tro­versy.
Not that his death should mean any less, but I think it is irrel­e­vant to the sub­ject of the blog item. Had he been killed by a mor­tar while in a Stryker then it would be overly appropriate. 

CA’s right, of course. My bad.

November 15th, 2004 | Armor, Ground Vehicles | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.