I hadn’t seen a picture of the Stryker NBC Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBCRV), but now it’s up at a few sites now (here and here). Word is that General Dynamics got the contract in January to start modifying the basic Stryker chassis to manufacture 17 NBCRVs under a low rate initial production contract for test and evaluation through FY2007.
This Army Chemical Review article offers more details on the advances of this system over the existing M91A1 NBC Recon System (Fox), including an upgraded chemical standoff sensor (you can make it out — it’s to the left of the remote weapons system in the picture), a biological agent detector, a CB mass spectrometer for sampling, and of course, the standard chemical and radiological point detectors. Plus there’s the advantage of having a standard military vehicle instead of a German vehicle (which was always tough to get spare parts and maintenance for).
This might be the last dedicated Army NBC recon vehicle for a long time. Currently, there are no plans to have a Future Combat Systems NBC recon variant. Rather, the proposed FCS recon and surveillance vehicle will include the NBC defense systems, and one would hope that the chemical specialists would be an integral part of the future scout platoons. No offense to the infantry, but the scouts I knew had trouble keeping their protective masks clean, let alone operating sophisticated CB defense sensors.
–Jason Sigger, crossposted at Armchair Generalist
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There’s enough on a chem spec’s plate to warrant their very own MOS so it’s not much of a surprise to find out that tossing it all on top of your local scouts was asking a bit much.
FCS is a complete disaster and will never be fielded. It’s rather funny that the Army’s FCS webpage touts the program as mainly needed for disaster relief like Katrina. OMG!
Well as someone who was in the very first active JBPDS platoon and did BIO OPS in Korea for 2 years and am now in a Recon platoon I hope to be Lima 6 qualified one day. Although I can only hope that they make it a 4 man crew cuz that is too much stuff to ask one person to do in the back. Plus I hope they make it easier to take samples out of the glove port. Short people are screwed in the FOX.
http://xfgkj.com ????