Stryker project ready to roll
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
After four years, a 3,000-page environmental impact report and a federal lawsuit, the Army's planned Stryker brigade for Hawai'i appears to be a reality.
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And not a minute too soon, at least in terms of the Army's timetable for bringing approximately 300 armored vehicles to the state, a move that will fundamentally change the way the Army operates here.
The first of 300 19-ton Stryker vehicles will begin arriving in Hawai'i a year from now, and the unit is expected to be operational in 2007.
The first ground will be turned this month on a series of projects that will transform land on O'ahu and the Big Island for use by the 3,818-soldier unit. The 19-ton "Strykers" begin to arrive a year from now, and the unit is expected to be operational in 2007.
The project, one of the Army's biggest in Hawai'i since World War II, will include the creation of 71 miles of private trails on O'ahu and the Big Island, six new firing ranges, two airfield upgrades, and the purchase of 1,400 acres adjacent to Schofield Barracks.
The pace of the $1.5 billion project picked up almost immediately once the Army prevailed last week in a legal battle against three Native Hawaiian groups that filed suit in federal court to halt the brigade's arrival.
Construction contracts worth approximately $225 million for fiscal 2005 will go out to bid in the next six months, said Ron Borne, the Army's transformation director here. Fiscal 2006 probably will see $125 million in construction, he said. Other projects will be completed through 2010.
The first contract was a $9.2 million award to Parsons Corp. to build a small-arms qualification range on Schofield Barracks, Borne said.
The work, part of a plan to consolidate pistol, rifle and machine-gun marksmanship ranges, will include digging trenches for targets, grading, utility work and construction of an administration building and control tower.
Don McClarin, principal project manager for Parsons in Honolulu, said no labor or management will be brought in from the Mainland, so all jobs will involve local labor or subcontracts with local firms.
Parsons, as managing partner of Parsons-UXB Joint Venture, performed the Kaho'olawe ordnance cleanup. The training-range job is expected to be completed in March, and over that time, McClarin estimates roughly four dozen people will be employed.
"There's certainly the prospect of a lot more work for the people working on the contract with us," McClarin said.
Hawai'i was picked for the fifth of up to eight fast-strike units that fill the gap between light infantry and heavy tank forces. There are 10 Stryker variants, including a troop carrier and medical vehicle with four beds to treat casualties on the move. A version with a 105 mm gun is still in development. The eight-wheeled vehicles have been deployed twice from Fort Lewis, Wash., to Iraq, where soldiers say that, with add-on armor, they have been effective against rocket-propelled grenades.
The Army has paid $15.9 million for 1,400 acres south of Schofield for another firing range and Stryker brigade motor pool. The title changed hands last September.
Hawai'i to host 1 of up to 8 units
As part of the conversion, the Army is seeking to buy from Parker Ranch about 23,000 acres adjoining 109,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island for a maneuver and blank-fire area.
It also would rebuild an old tank trail from Kawaihae to Pohakuloa sometime around 2010 or later, which soldiers would use to move the Stryker vehicles from the port to the training area.
Negotiations with Parker Ranch are expected to start soon.
The Army also has to buy land from the Galbraith Estate and Dole Foods on O'ahu to create a trail system through Helemano to Kahuku, where up to two dozen buildings will go up to create an urban environment training area. Another trail will link to Dillingham Airfield.
"It's not as extensive as you would think to build the roads because we're actually using the current agriculture roads," Borne said. "We'll just harden them for our vehicles."
A contract for the trail to Helemano is expected to be awarded this year, but the 15-mile stretch to Dillingham is expected to be constructed around 2010.
The transformation of Schofield's 2nd Brigade is expected to bring nearly $700 million in construction projects to O'ahu and the Big Island.
The costs will include up to $30 million to buy 23,000 acres and expand the Pohakuloa Training Area, more than $50 million for a Stryker brigade maintenance motor pool on O'ahu, and $30 million for a mock city for training in Kahuku.
The previously completed environmental review states that 1,736 tons of dust would be generated from increased vehicle use, an increase of 81 percent. The Army said there would be significant effects on cultural and biological resources, but that mitigation efforts could reduce them.
Borne said that for the project's size, the visual and noise impact of the Strykers will be minimal. The same .50-caliber machine gun and MK-19 grenade launcher on the Strykers are fired today at Schofield.
"The frequency of noise from training should be almost infinitesimal to the folks around it," Borne said. "It may happen a little more often because there will be more soldiers firing, but until the mobile gun system arrives, and we would fire that infrequently, I don't think they would notice anything differently than what they would be hearing today."
The Stryker, championed by Kaua'i native and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, has been controversial since its inception in 1999. Debates have raged over the decision to move away from heavier tracked vehicles such as tanks in favor of the faster, more lightly armored Strykers.
The new unit will be built around the 2nd Brigade at Schofield. Another 810 soldiers will be added, bringing the total strength to 3,818, Borne said.
David A. Bramlett, a retired Army four-star general who headed U.S. Forces Command and now lives on the North Shore, said the Stryker will augment the Army's arsenal.
"It is a great response to what's needed, which is flexibility, deployability and greater lethality — and, of course, you get ballistic protection for the infantrymen," he said.
Bramlett remembers joining the 25th Division in 1964, when it had a tank battalion and armored cavalry squadron, a force that deployed to Vietnam.
"It's a departure for light infantry to (go to a medium-weight combat vehicle). We haven't had a fleet of wheeled combat vehicles in some time in the Army's history," he said.
A lawsuit claiming the Army didn't adequately consider the project's effects on the environment or consider alternative sites was thrown out last week.
However, Jim Albertini, a longtime Hawai'i peace activist who lives on the Big Island, believes the Stryker brigade still can be stopped.
"There may or may not be additional legal appeals, but the real decision about Strykers in Hawai'i will not be made by a court, the Army, or the U.S. Congress," Albertini said. "It will be made by the people of Hawai'i and their will to resist and stand for peace, justice and the 'aina with what Gandhi called 'truth-force' — nonviolent action done with Hawaiian style aloha."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
