George Hill
Member
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/127704_stryker21.html
I'll not quote it... let me just say that this POS vehicle is rolling forward in the face of repeated failures and shortcomings.
Please turn your attention to a report from one of our own:
http://www.madogre.com/spectre.htm
Yet they are still pushing it forward... Typical. If something doesn't work - just keep throwing money on it until we can't afford to let it go.
This must be the reason we still have Senator Robert Byrd in office.
I'll not quote it... let me just say that this POS vehicle is rolling forward in the face of repeated failures and shortcomings.
Please turn your attention to a report from one of our own:
http://www.madogre.com/spectre.htm
You’ve heard mention of the Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT). You hear Ogre carp about them. Well…I was going through Air Assault School when my squad went to NTC. Our company went as OPFOR, but the Headquarters Element (MGS’ers- 19K’s attached to Infantry companies to use the projected “Mobile Gun System†Stryker variant, FO’s, and mortars) all got to simulate an indigenous force working with a group of Special Forces. My company is in 1st Brigade, so we were there as OPFOR for 3rd Brigade- again, all except for Headquarters, who got to be on the SBCT’s side.
Here’s how it went down. In the first major battle, the Special Forces group- comprising about 45 people, half of them 18 series types- destroyed more enemy vehicles than the entire Stryker Brigade. Ouch. The next battle, the leaders tried to skew the results by stacking all the SBCT vehicles on the obstacle the Special Forces Team had occupied. Brilliant- you can’t succeed on your own merit, so you’ll try to copy something someone else has already done? Please.
Incidentally, the Headquarters element and Special Forces “advisors†took on our own company. We took out 85 dismounts, decimating our company…and pissed off the CO so badly he didn’t want to talk to the mortars for weeks. Screw you, sir. Love, the bastard children of the infantry, mortar men.
In the past month of so, most of the Stryker vehicles on base have been festooned with simulated reactive armor. Okay, reactive armor is good, right? Hm. The Stryker IAV has minimal clearance to enter the C-130 as it is. With the armor, it will not fit. The armor is also heavy. The Stryker has a system that allows the tires pressure to be adjusted from inside the vehicle. In sand, one chooses a mode that releases some of the pressure, but you can’t use that mode with the armor, because it weighs so much, the tires have to be kept fully inflated.
This seems something like the process that happened to the F-16 fighter. The F-16 was designed to be a lightweight, super maneuverable fighter, primarily armed with two heat seeking Sidewinder missiles. It’s demonstrated to many countries, and everyone loves it. Then they load it down with tons of ordnance, totally destroying the performance that was the driver for the purchase. Jeez.
I hate marching more than virtually anything else in the universe. Possibly more than Bill Clinton. Well, okay, almost as much as Bill Clinton. “Death before Dismount†has become my credo, too. I will hitch a ride on a truck stacked with sweating nitroglycerin, if it means I don’t have to march, BUT I have yet to meet ANYONE in the Army troops around me who likes the Stryker. I think the basic concept has some validity, but so does the V-22 Osprey: it’s just unworkable. We’ll see what happens with the IAV.
Yet they are still pushing it forward... Typical. If something doesn't work - just keep throwing money on it until we can't afford to let it go.
This must be the reason we still have Senator Robert Byrd in office.