Stryker upgrades to roll out by '07
Advertiser Staff and Wire Services
The Army's Stryker combat vehicle is already being redesigned because of soldiers' complaints about its safety and performance, and some of those changes will appear on vehicles destined for Hawai'i, military officials said.
Advertiser library photo • July 26, 2004
Several key systems are being redesigned to give future Strykers better mobility, increased protection and greater firepower, officials said.
The Stryker's "slat" armor takes a big hit in an Army report, "but you talk to the soldiers, and they love it," said one official.
By 2007, according to an Army report, Stryker brigades will be able to shoot on the move with greater accuracy day and night. They'll also have armored shields protecting vulnerable hatches and an improved tire inflation system that can better handle the vehicle's weight in combat.
The changes stem from soldier complaints outlined in a report from the Center for Army Lessons Learned, which focused on the performance of the Army's first Stryker brigade out of Fort Lewis, Wash., during its maiden combat tour in Iraq.
About 300 of the 20-ton armored vehicles, which ride on eight wheels instead of tank treads, are expected to start arriving on O'ahu in fiscal 2006.
The fast-response unit, one of seven planned, is expected to be operational in Hawai'i by 2007, although a lawsuit filed by three Native Hawaiian groups charges that the Army did not adequately consider locations outside Hawai'i for a Stryker brigade, in violation of federal environmental law.
A decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra is expected soon. The $1.5 billion Stryker brigade is the biggest Army project in Hawai'i since World War II, and could generate nearly $700 million in construction projects on O'ahu and the Big Island.
"We're just waiting on that (Ezra's decision), but we're continuing on with the time line," said Schofield Barracks spokeswoman Capt. Kathy Turner. "All the projects — those are still tracking, but we're in the middle of surveys, design work and planning. There are no buildings being erected."
Neither the planned $15.9 million purchase of 1,400 acres adjacent to Schofield, nor the purchase of 23,000 acres on the Big Island, both for training, have gone through, Turner said. The Hawai'i unit is expected to be assembled in the fall.
Army officials in the Stryker program say the improvements were in the works long before the report was completed in December 2004. The Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, released the report to the public.
"There wasn't a single surprise in there. In every case, they are being worked," said Steven Campbell, Stryker systems coordinator for the assistant Army secretary for acquisitions, logistics and technology.
Stryker brigades are meant to serve as the model for the Army's effort to create a lighter, more agile force. There are 10 Stryker variants, including a troop carrier, medical vehicle with four beds to treat casualties on the move, and another that supports an anti-tank missile system
Three members of Hawai'i's Washington delegation contacted about the Stryker report said the issues raised are a concern, but they recognize the vehicle still is a work in progress, and are expecting improvements.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka said although the report "highlights some unforeseen difficulties, I continue to support the transformation of the United States Army, including the transition of the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, into a Stryker brigade combat team."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, said he has some concerns about the Stryker program viability.
"Everybody does," Abercrombie said, "but we understood that this is an evolving vehicle and has been."
U.S. Rep. Ed Case said the concepts embodied by the Stryker — faster, more mobile and transportable — are the right concepts for the type of defense the United States will have to provide.
"I don't have any problems with the concept of the Stryker," Case said. "I do have concerns with the report that certainly as a member of Congress I want to get to the bottom of."
A debate has raged within the military community over the advantages of wheels versus tank treads. The Stryker was intended to be rapidly transportable, and a key performance parameter for Strykers was their ability to be transported in C-130 cargo planes.
But a 2004 Government Accountability Office report found that they barely fit inside the aircraft, and may be too heavy, especially with the add-on armor.
The Army has deployed two of the seven Stryker brigades it plans to field by the summer of 2008. With each brigade taking with it more than 300 vehicles, those seven brigades will cost the Army $7.6 billion.
One of the major criticisms in the report deals with "slat" armor, the cagelike system intended as an interim solution to protect against rocket-propelled grenades, which the report said is heavy and affects performance.
Abercrombie noted that the idea with Strykers was to move from tank treads to wheels. The Strykers can hit speeds of 70 mph and deliver soldiers without the teeth-chattering ride of a tank.
But that has certain implications, Abercrombie said, among them: Strykers can't be armored the same way as a heavy tank with treads.
"Mobility and technology were supposed to overcome that (lack of heavy armor). I've always been a little skeptical of that and I'm not the only one," he said. "To the degree or the extent that the mobility and the technology associated with it leaves it more vulnerable than they would have thought, that's going to have to be addressed."
The Army report found that the Stryker armor is effective against just half of all rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs. The slat armor is designed to "catch" or deflect the grenades so they detonate before penetrating the vehicle.
Soldiers and commanders said the 50 percent figure is highly misleading because it characterizes shrapnel sprayed by RPGs detonating on the slats as a failure. But soldiers said that in such instances, most of the Stryker's occupants remain safe.
The current Stryker unit in Iraq has sustained more than 250 RPG attacks in six months, including more than 70 direct hits, according to brigade figures. None has penetrated a vehicle.
"If you look at the report, it sounds like slat armor is a dog, but you talk to the soldiers, and they love it," Campbell said.
In more than a dozen interviews, commanders, soldiers and mechanics who use the Stryker fleet daily in one of Iraq's most dangerous areas unanimously praised the vehicle.
"I would tell you that at least 100 soldiers' lives have been saved because of the Stryker," said Col. Robert B. Brown, commander of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which uses about 225 Strykers for combat operations throughout northern Iraq. "That's being conservative."
Despite the report's criticisms, it recommends continued use of the slat armor. Stryker officials say improvements are in the works and that it is perfecting armor that will be ready when the fourth Stryker brigade is fielded in December 2006. Hawai'i is slated to get the fifth Stryker brigade.
Advertiser Military Writer William Cole, the Army Times and the Washington Post contributed to this report.
