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Stryker demo debunks critics

by Joe Burlas

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. (Army News Service, Oct. 25, 2002) -- The Army has answered a number of recent critics who have stated that the Stryker Infantry Vehicle doesn't meet the Army's requirement of being deployable by C-130 Hercules aircraft and be ready for combat operations once out of the plane.

The Army and Air Force debunked that claim with a demonstration that showed just that capability during a media event at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Oct. 16.

This was not the first time Strykers traveled via the Hercules. Strykers were also airlifted by C-130s into the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., as part of Millennium Challenge 2002 in early August.

In front of a crowd of about 200 journalists, senior Army leaders and government officials at the Andrews demonstration, a C-130 taxied in front of a hangar and released a Stryker with two crewman and a nine-man infantry squad. Working in a cold driving rain, the squad took about eight minutes to prepare the vehicle for combat operations. The preparation entailed lifting the Remote Weapons Station into place, connecting radio antennas and moving water cans, individual rucksacks and other gear from the Hercules and attaching it to bustle racks on the outside of the Army's newest infantry vehicle.

Army leaders at a media roundtable the day before the demonstration said the Army never envisioned the Stryker to roll off a C-130 with guns blazing, but rather be capable of conducting combat operations after a short period of preparation.

Lt. Col Rob Choppa, commander of the demonstration troops out of Fort Lewis, Wash.'s 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, said he is satisfied with the short time it takes the Stryker to be combat ready once off a C-130. Having served in Ranger and airborne units -- both forced-entry capable -- Choppa said the time it takes soldiers from those units to get on the ground and get their gear ready for combat is comparable to the time it takes Stryker to be ready.

"(If you) jump in, you still have to take your weapon out of your protective jump pack and put it into operation," Choppa said. "If you heavy drop a vehicle in, you still have to re-rig it on the drop zone."

Col. Charles Betack, the Training and Doctrine Command systems manager for the Stryker and Bradley, told reporters that Stryker brigades are intended to be an early-entry unit, not a force-entry one. "I can tell you right now I don't think (Air Force pilots are) going to be flying a C-130 into any kind of airfield where there are bullets flying."

While the Hercules does currently require a waiver to carry a single 38,000-pound Stryker with its crew and infantry squad, that is expected to change in the near future, said Air Force Col. Jimmie Simmons, chief of Aircrew Standardization and Evaluation, Air Mobility Command.

"The waiver process in the Air Force is essentially to raise awareness that we're doing something a bit different than the way we normally do," Simmons said.

Calling waivers just the way the Air Force does routine business, Simmons said there are currently about 153 pieces of equipment that require a waiver for C-130 transport. The Air Mobility Command issues about five waivers a day, from moving uncertified equipment to flying with a broken light bulb on top of the plane, he said.

Moving to take the Stryker out of the "waiver world" into the "routine business world," Simmons said the Air Force is conducting extensive testing with C-130s, Strykers and the associated crews of both. A test conducted Oct. 15 verified that the Hercules' crew, Stryker's crew and infantry squad could exit a C-130 with a Stryker aboard in less than 90 seconds. The test subjects did it in 48 seconds.

The end result of the testing and some additional coordination with the Army will be a memorandum of agreement with the Army. Simmons said he expects the MOA to happen soon.

The Stryker is intended to provide the Army's light forces more protection and lethal firepower while maintaining the ability to deploy more quickly than heavier Bradley-equipped infantry units. While only two are currently standing up at Fort Lewis, the Army plans to equip six brigades with Strykers.

Six Stryker Brigade Combat Teams meets current Defense Planning Guidance fro the Office of the Secretary of Defense and "provides the strategic responsiveness and necessary combat power to contribute to the swift defeat or the ability to win decisively when we're called upon to do so," said Lt. Gen. James Riley, commanding general, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.