By Ann Roosevelt
It has been a decade today since the Army issued its first, $4 billion, six-year requirements contract to equip as many as six brigade combat teams with a family of Interim Armored Vehicles (IAV)–2,131 vehicles.
As of Sept. 1, 2010, General Dynamics [GD] has delivered 3,420 new Stryker vehicles of a planned total Army program of 3,983. The vehicles have accumulated 25 million miles. General Dynamics has trained 19,000 soldiers, and field service representatives are embedded with seven Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.
The full time, four-wheel drive eight wheeled armored vehicles could hit 62 miles per hour on the highway with a maximum range of 312 miles. The vehicles are based on the General Motors Light Armored Vehicle III (LAV III), used by the U.S. Marines, and the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand armies and Saudi National Guard.
The contract, issued Nov. 16, 2000 to the joint venture of General Motors [GM] Defense and General Dynamics Defense Group LLC, was for a family of 10 vehicles, services and associated support. General Dynamics later bought GM Defense.
The GM-GDLS team defeated United Defense LP, now subsumed in BAE Systems, and Singapore Technologies (Defense Daily, Nov. 17, 2000).
The award was the culmination of a process initiated in 1999 by then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who wanted rapidly-deployable interim vehicles as part of his vision for transforming the service.
The contract used several of the then “latest” acquisition streamlining initiatives. They included acquiring currently available systems in a fully competitive, off-the-shelf- procurement using a best value evaluation.
Additionally, the service conducted the entire acquisition process using “electronic media”–the Internet.
In February 2002, the Army officially named the IAV, “Stryker,” after two unrelated soldiers who posthumously received the Medal of Honor: Spc. 4 Robert F. Stryker for his actions in Vietnam, and Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker, who received the award during World War II.
From the start, Stryker vehicles had critics who were sceptical about the vehicle’s transportability, ground mobility, armor, air-drop capability, urban warfare capability and cost.
However, deployed in Iraq, the vehicles, with slat armor and ability to move fast helped the Army’s new modular brigades capitalize on fluid situations.
Then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker said if the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team deployed to Iraq, the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Div., was properly employed it could do “amazing things” (Defense Daily, Oct. 9, 2003).
Three months later, Schoomaker said, “The Stryker vehicle with that that slat armor on it is only exceeded by the M1 tank in terms of the level of protection. I think they’re doing great. We’ve already had one of them (Stryker vehicle) attacked by an IED and the only serious injury that we got out of that was a fractured ankle, the driver, the IED went off underneath” (Defense Daily, Jan. 9, 2004).
In Iraq and Afghanistan, Strykers are proving themselves on the battlefield.
The family of vehicle comes in two variants: the Infantry Fighting Vehicle and Mobile Gun System, and eight different IFV configurations: the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle (NBC RV); Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM); Medical Evacuation Vehicle (MEV); Mortar Carrier (MC); Engineer Squad Vehicle (ESV); Command Vehicle (CV); Fire Support Vehicle (FSV); and the Reconnaissance Vehicle (RV).
The 10 variants have 85 percent commonality.
Increasing protection and survivability, Congress approved a reprogramming request to transfer funds directly to the Stryker program’s double-V hull effort.
The vehicles have sustained 1,560 attacks by RPGs, IEDs, Vehicle-borne IEDS and suicide bombers, GD said.
A July 6 a Pentagon Acquisition Decision Memorandum authorized long-lead procurement and production of double-V hull vehicles before testing was complete to supporting Army urgent operational needs in Afghanistan.
General Dynamics received a $73.4 million contract to produce 45 Stryker armored combat vehicles with the double V-hull configuration, an Oct. 13 Defense Department contract announcement said.
Deliveries begin in January, allowing vehicles to be available for use by the Stryker brigade that will rotate into Afghanistan next year. The work will be completed by February 2012.
While the Army considers an uncertain future marked by persistent conflict, soldiers are confident in their vehicle, as is this quote from Lt. Sean on Soldier’s Sound Off on the General Dynamics Web site: “The versatility of the Stryker is really something. We’re able to change and adapt to new threats and new emerging problems much more quickly than anything else I’ve been on.”