Testing
In September 2002 the Army Test and Evaluation Command started
the 16-day field-testing portion of a formal comparison between the
new Stryker Armored Vehicle and the M113A3 Armored Personnel Carrier
at Fort Lewis, Wash. Formally dubbed the Medium Armored Vehicle
Comparison Evaluation, the test was required by the 2001 National
Defense Authorization Act. The comparison started with a 50-mile
road march, and the first two mission vignettes are schedule to
begin Sept. 13. A wide variety of data was be collected from a
platoon of four M113A3s rebuilt by Anniston Army Depot, Ala., and a
platoon of four new Strykers delivered to Fort Lewis.
The Army's first Stryker Brigade Combat Team conducted its
operational evaluation exercise at the Joint Readiness Training
Center in Louisiana. The exercise, named Arrowhead Lightning II, was
set to assess the SBCT's ability to conduct early entry and combat
operations in a mid- to low- intensity environment against an
unconventional enemy. The exercise was set to take place from May
15-27, 2003. Following a month-long training event at Fort Irwin,
CA, that ended in mid-April, the brigade transported 1,500 vehicles
-- including 293 Stryker vehicles -- by air, land and sea to ports
close to Fort Polk. Upon completion of the operational evaluation
exercise, the Army was to prepare a report to the Secretary of
Defense, who would in turn then have certify to Congress whether the
results of the evaluation indicate the design of the SBCT is
operationally effective and fully trained before it can be deployed
on missions worldwide.
The 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, of the 1st Brigade, 25th
Infantry Division, (SBCT 2) is deployed their equipment and
personnel to Fort Knox, KY, to participate in the Initial
Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) from June-September 2003.
The battalion also discovered that while the Stryker vehicle can
easily ford streams and shallow rivers, Soldiers must take care not
to exceed certain speeds. They found that if they entered the water
at fast speeds, then water would splash up over the front of the
vehicle, filling the engine compartment, causing the vehicle to
stall. When the vehicle slowed down, the water would not splash over
the hull, and allowed the vehicle to move through the water without
stalling.
The Stryker test and evaluation program is challenging because of
the requirement to test and evaluate ten different variants. The
Army's OE Report concludes, "current design and training performance
of the first SBCT meets the requirements of the Organizational and
Operational Concept." Based on the Army's assessment, DOT&E does not
believe there are any unit design issues. However, the OE was not
sufficient to completely address the operational effectiveness and
suitability of an SBCT, nor did it address the operational
effectiveness, suitability, or survivability of the Stryker vehicles
themselves. Stryker vehicle effectiveness, suitability, and
survivability will be assessed in the BLRIP report.
The Army has completed the Stryker IOT&E. DOT&E's independent
evaluation is ongoing. This evaluation will determine the
operational effectiveness and suitability of eight of ten Stryker
vehicles types that were available for testing.
Deployment
The first interim brigade combat team contains three substitute
vehicles, because the mobile gun system and support systems for the
nuclear, biological and chemical reconnaissance vehicle, and the
fire support vehicle, would not be ready by May 2003. The Army will
not field an interim brigade combat team supported by all
configurations of the Stryker until 2005.
For the first time since World War I, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd
Infantry Division deployed overseas. The brigade's Stryker vehicles
and other equipment arrived 12 November 2003 in the port of Kuwait
on board the USNS Shughart and USNS Sisler after a three-week voyage
from Fort Lewis, Wash., via the Port of Tacoma. The deployment marks
the second time that Stryker vehicles have landed on foreign soil
though. In August 2003 a platoon from the Army's first Stryker
Brigade Combat team conducted a capabilities demonstration in South
Korea.
The Army is betting much of its future on the success of this
19-ton wheeled combat vehicle wrapped in a steel-grilled hoop skirt.
In Iraq, the vehicle's combat debut is unfolding with the Army's
first Stryker Brigade combat team. This much-debated $10 billion
experiment aims to field as many as half a dozen 3,600-soldier units
equipped with these high-tech, lightly armored vehicles that can
speed infantry to a fight. Unlike an Abrams tank or a Bradley
fighting vehicle, the Stryker is a medium-weight, eight-wheel
vehicle that can carry 11 soldiers and weapons at speeds of more
than 60 miles an hour. With its giant rubber tires instead of noisy
tracks, it is fast and quiet and draws on the brigade's
reconnaissance drones, eavesdropping equipment and the Army's most
advanced communications gear to outflank an enemy rather than
outslug it.
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