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What secrets lurk in the filecards?
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03-16-2009, 05:19 PM
zuludelta
EQ-Viper
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 4,343
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Loose Cannon
I don't see the Stryker as the Flavor of the month though.
Interim Armored Vehicle - Stryker
THis is how the Army explains it though. I haven't read it all but it sheds some light as to why they are trying the Stryker. I don't thin the Stryker is what they originally had in mind but it has been fairly successful.
The problem they are starting to run into is to move a huge armored division around is a massive undertaking, and once we kick whoever's butt it is, the tanks lose their usefulness almost immediately. Tanks are expensive to maintain, require massive amounts of supplies and Fuel, and time to deploy. Then there is the legacy model which the US is working with, which was designed for a full scale war across the Eastern European landscape. Once they go into cities they become less manueverable, and are not useful for dealing with the problems of interacting with the locals.
First off, I want to thank you for humouring me with this little side-discussion. I like my GI Joes as much as the next Hisstank member, but sometimes, I just need to sound off on real-world topics (and I don't mean problems getting a date like the guy in
that other thread
) with people whom I share a common interest.
I think the Stryker (and it's older USMC and Canadian Forces cousin, the LAV-25) is a pretty good light armored vehicle that offers a reasonable compromise of mobility, protection, and weight-savings compared to the older, heavier Bradley. But it's been designed with 20th century open warfare in mind, and not 21st century counterinsurgency.
Looking at the acquisition timeline, something just doesn't add up (or it adds up, and the sum is brass shortsightedness). The US and its allies had been conducting GWOT operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq for a little over 4 years by the time the Stryker went into limited-scale production in 2005. In that 4 year interim, numerous reports had already come back from the field citing the realities of the battlespace: (a) IEDs and roadside bombs were the enemy's weapon of choice against vehicles; (b) a large segment of the native population was, at the very least, distrustful of coalition forces and an openly militaristic organizational posture wasn't helping win over "hearts and minds;" and (c) much of the engagement with armed insurgents occurred in urban areas where conventional armored vehicles had difficulty maneuvering effectively or efficiently.
The Stryker addresses none of those three realities. Its "out-of-the-box" IED and mine-protection capabilities are marginal, its outwardly aggressive design makes it a trust and liasion bridging liability, and it is much too large and heavy for efficient urban engagement. For years they've had these reports staring them in the face, and they still went into full-scale production in 2007 (at about $4.13 million a pop, according to the federal Government Accountability Office), even after feedback from limited scale field trials came back less than positive (see
this article
for a brief overview of the problems with the acquisition program circa 2004). Heck, they didn't even need all those reports... all they had to do was get a decent military history book and see how the USSR made a total clusterf//k out of their 1978-1988 invasion of Afghanistan, despite having what was arguably the most formidable ground combat forces at the time in terms of manpower and armored vehicle numbers.
And to top it all off and make it even more surreal, COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) alternatives to the Stryker exist that are better at doing the jobs the Stryker was never intended to do in the first place. AND they're being made by the same guys who make the Stryker. AND they're selling them to the DoD on the premise that they're better and cheaper than the stuff they sold to them so recently. I mean seriously, I don't know if this is comedy or just plain sad. It's like Hasbro releasing multiple Storm-Shadow variants within weeks of each other, knowing that we'll all be lining up at Wal-mart buying all of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Loose Cannon
I think the Joes are also missing a Civil Affairs guy.
I've always thought that Doc would make a good Civil Affairs Officer. Using him in a detached Civil Affairs role (either in the Public Health & Safety or Emergency Services functional specialty), in my mind, seems to be a better use of his talents and education rather than using him as a field medic (where, in all practicality, he probably would be no better than an enlisted 68W like Lifeline). And it totally works with the idea of the Joes being an elite USSOCOM unit, since Army Civil Affairs Command is officially recognized as a Special Operations-capable organization. Other Joes whom I think could easily be re-imagined as Civil Affairs Specialists (functional specialties in parentheses):
- Lady Jaye (Cultural Relations & Linguistics)
- Barbecue (Emergency Services)
- Hard Top (Public Works and Utilities)
- Scoop (Public Communications)
- Airtight (Environmental Management)
zuludelta
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