The News Tribune March 06, 2010
Army's Stryker vehicles to get safer
By Scott Fontaine
The Army’s chief of staff told lawmakers this week that a protective design change is coming for the Army’s Stryker vehicle, the signature carrier of local infantry fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen. George Casey told the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee Wednesday that it’s “probability, more than a possibility” that the Army will add a V-shape hull to the bottom of the 20-ton vehicle.
The shape would help deflect blasts from the Stryker’s underbelly and is modeled on a similar design in the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, class of armored vehicles.
“I can’t say exactly how long it’s going to take, because we’re in the early design stages of it,” Casey said. “But we are moving rapidly to get it built, tested and into the hands of the forces.”
The Army has six active-duty Stryker brigades, including three at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Two of the local brigades are now in Iraq, and the third is in Afghanistan, for a total of about 12,000 soldiers.
The Pennsylvania National Guard operates an additional Stryker brigade, and the Pentagon recently recommended one active-duty heavy brigade be transformed into a Stryker unit.
Additional Stryker brigades are expected to be formed in coming years.
Roadside bombs have become the principal weapon of insurgents in the wars in Iraq and, more recently, Afghanistan. The type of explosive and the method of detonation varies, but many attacks follow a similar method: Insurgents wait for troops to drive past a spot where a bomb is hidden, and then it is detonated underneath the vehicle in an attempt to kill everyone inside.
Although the violence in Iraq has ebbed, bombs continue to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“We were not nearly as challenged in (Iraq) as we are in Afghanistan,” Casey said.
Of the reported 31 hostile deaths that Lewis-McChord’s 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division has suffered since it deployed to Afghanistan in July, 26 have come from roadside bomb strikes while troops were riding in Strykers.
One such bomb, weighing more than 1,000 pounds, killed seven soldiers in Kandahar province on Oct. 27. It was the largest single loss of life for the base since the two wars began.
Casey told Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, that the Stryker was developed before the full threat of roadside bombs became apparent. The first Stryker brigade deployed from Fort Lewis to northern Iraq in 2003.
“We’ve been working very hard over time to increase the survivability of the Stryker,” Casey said. “I’ll tell you this: It is more survivable than the up-armored Humvee and less survivable than the MRAP.”
Secretary of the Army John McHugh said General Dynamics, the company that builds the vehicles, has “recognized this early on and has been working and studying this for some time.”
This would be the first major modification to the chassis of the Stryker, which comes in 10 variants. Other defensive changes, such as an armored cage to absorb rocket-propelled grenades, have been made since the vehicles were first used in warfare.
Army Times, citing unidentified sources, said 130 Strykers with the V-shape hull can be delivered by July 2011. A full brigade has 332 vehicles.
Both Casey’s testimony and other published reports left unanswered the question about retrofitting existing Strykers. The vehicles go through an extensive reset process upon returning from a deployment. Engines and transmissions are taken out and tested, and all other systems get an inspection. New parts are installed when needed, and armor plates damaged by bullets and shrapnel are replaced.
The process costs about $140,000 per vehicle.
John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank on defense and security issues, said Friday that the V-shape hull is probably a good idea but could make Strykers less stable.
“At first blush, it seems to me that the result would be a dreadfully tall vehicle with a really high center of gravity, and thus really prone to tip over,” he said.
The introduction of MRAPs – with their layers of heavy armor and V-shape hull – added protection that other military vehicles don’t have. MRAPs are ubiquitous at overseas American military bases, and Casey acknowledged during Wednesday’s hearing that the Army has made “a significant investment in those vehicles.”
But they are heavier and far less nimble than Strykers and Humvees, and some soldiers say the MRAP’s lone gunner hatch (the Stryker has four) automatically puts soldiers in a defensive position.
Scott Fontaine: 253-597-8646
scott.fontaine@thenewstribune.com
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