Stryker

The Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) for the United States Army in a plant in London, Ontario. It has four-wheel drive (8×4) and can be switched to all-wheel drive (8×8).

The Stryker was conceived as a family of vehicles forming the backbone of a new medium-weight brigade combat team (BCT) that was to strike a balance between heavy armor and infantry. The service launched the Interim Armored Vehicle competition, and in 2000, the service selected the LAV III proposed by GDLS and General Motors Defense. The service named this family of vehicles the "Stryker".

Ten variants of the Stryker were initially conceived, some of which have been upgraded with v-hulls.

Development history

Interim Armored Vehicle competition

In October 1999, General Eric Shinseki, then U.S. Army Chief of Staff, outlined a transformation plan for the Army that would allow it to adapt to post–Cold War conditions. The plan, named "Objective Force", would have the army adopt a flexible doctrine that would allow it to deploy quickly, and be equipped for a variety of operations. An early phase of the plan called for the introduction of an Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV), which was intended to fill the capability gap between heavier and heavily armed, but not easily deployable, vehicles, such as the M2 Bradley, and easily deployable vehicles that are lightly armed and protected, such as the Humvee. The IAV was intended as an interim vehicle until light air-mobile vehicles from the Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicles program came online, none of which did before the program was canceled. Nearly a year and a half behind schedule, the General Motors Defense–General Dynamics Land Systems team was awarded the $8 billion contract in November 2000 to produce 2,131 vehicles of a variant of the Canadian LAV III for equipping six rapid deployment Brigade Combat Teams by 2008. United Defense protested the contract award in December, saying their proposal cost less than half that of General Motors–General Dynamics. The General Accounting Office rejected the protest in April 2001.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army Paul J. Hoeper called the IAV "the best off-the-shelf equipment available in the world in this class", though many in the Army openly wondered whether the vehicles were underclassed compared to the vehicles they might face in battle. In February 2002, the Army formally renamed the IAV as the "Stryker" after two unrelated U.S. soldiers who posthumously received the Medal of Honor: Private First Class Stuart S. Stryker, who died in World War II, and Specialist Four Robert F. Stryker, who died in the Vietnam War."Army Announces Name For Interim Armored Vehicle"
U.S. Army. Retrieved 15 August 2007.

Production

In 2002, as the Stryker program faced criticism from lawmakers, including former Congressman Newt Gingrich, Pentagon officials mulled reducing the number of planned Stryker Brigade Combat Teams from six to three for a cost savings of $4.5 billion. In October, the Stryker's C-130 air mobility was demonstrated for lawmakers at Andrews Air Force Base. At the Association of the United States Army, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki defended the six-brigade plan and boasted that the C-130 could carry a Stryker "every way but sideways".

Four brigades were funded in the DoD's budget proposal for fiscal year 2004, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld deferring a decision on two additional until July 2003. In May, the Army readied the Stryker for initial operating capability at Fort Polk. ''The New York Times'' noted the swiftness with which the program had proceeded from its inception in 1999.

In November 2003, 311 Stryker vehicles were deployed in the Iraq War, where they saw mixed success. Never designed for front-line combat, the vehicles were nevertheless pressed into counterinsurgency roles for which there was an unmet need.

Unexpectedly fierce resistance by insurgents prompted field upgrades to the vehicle's armor. To counter the threat of rocket-propelled grenades, General Dynamics developed slat armor, which added 5,000 lb (2,270 kg) to the vehicle weight. The upgrades came at a cost: in addition to hindering mobility in the field, the additional weight ruled out transporting the vehicle by C-130.

In February 2005, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker told the House Armed Services Committee that "we're absolutely enthusiastic about what the Stryker has done." However, a leaked U.S. Army report from December 2004 said the Stryker was "effective and survivable only with limitations for use in small-scale contingencies." The report, which drew from feedback from Stryker personnel in Mosul, described a litany of design flaws, and said the effectiveness of the vehicles was "getting worse, not better."

The Stryker 105 mm M1128 Mobile Gun System (MGS) moved into low-rate initial production in 2005 for evaluation, and entered full production in 2007. General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada assembles the Stryker for the U.S. Army in a plant in London, Ontario.

The vehicle is employed in Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, light and mobile units based on the brigade combat team doctrine that relies on vehicles connected by military C⁴I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence) networks.

General Dynamics's Robotic Systems division was developing autonomous navigation for the Stryker and several other vehicles with a $237 million contract until the program was cut in July 2011. Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) has also tested an active magneto rheological suspension

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