Washington Times
April 1, 2005
Pg. 16
Armor-Bound Army Muscle?
By Jack Kelly
Four items in the news recently suggest the Army should reconsider plans to put
its future on wheels.
*Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the First Cavalry Division, gave a talk
at the Fort Hood officers club March 14. He said one big lesson his troops
learned during their year in Iraq is that heavy armor--M1 tanks and Bardley
Fighting Vehicles--are enormously effective in urban combat.
*USA Today reported March 18 that the number of soldiers killed or seriously
injured in accidents involving up-armored humvees has more than doubled in the
last four months. All but one of 14 soldiers killed during the period died in
rollovers. The Army suspects soldiers lack the skill to handle the heavier
Humvees and lose control speeding through ambush areas.
*A study by the Center for Army Lessons Learned indicated the slat armor on the
new Stryker armored car stops rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) only about half
the time, and the weight of the armor degrades the Stryker's performance and
makes it mroe difficult to operate safely.
*The New York Times reported March 28 the estimated cost of the first phase of
the Future Combat Systems--a family of wheeled vehicles the Army hopes will
replace tanks and Bradleys--has soared to $145 billion. "We're dealing with
a train wreck," said Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania Republican, a member of
the House Armed Services Committee.
Most soldiers who have ridden in them and fought from them like the Strykers.
"It rides very nice," said Lt. Daniel Leard, a platoon commander in
the first Stryker brigade to see combat in Iraq. "We never had any major
maintenance issues."
But others demur. "In e-mails from troops stationed in Iraq, the criticisms
are numerous," said Eric Miller, a defense investigator for the Project on
Government Oversight.
"The Stryker has too many blind sponts looking out from the inside; the
5,000-pound "birdcage" armor makes it top-heavy and prone to
rollovers; it breaks down too often and chews up tires at an uncommon
rate," Mr. Miller said.
Stryker weapons--the .50 caliber machine gun or the Mark-19 40 mm grenade
launcher--"will not penetrate most walls in Iraq, which are made of
concrete and cinder block," said retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, a
mechanized warfare expert.
"My big beef with the stryker is the .50-cal," an otherwise
complimentary soldier told me. "If you run out of ammo, you have to
physically get out of the vehicle, get on the roof and grab another ammo can.
That's insane."
With the slat "birdcage" armor attached, the Stryker is too bulky to
fight its way through the narrow, winding streets of older Middle Eastern
cities, and too heavy to maneuver effectively off roads, said defense consultant
Victor O'Reilly.
Lt. Leard acknowledged his platoon couldn't take its Strykers into central Mosul.
"We patrolled (there) on foot," he said.
The cost of the Stryker is approaching $4 million each, according to the
Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress. That's an awful lot to pay
for an oversized armored car with thin armor and light weapons, say Col.
Macgregor and Mr. O'Reilly. They favor an upgraded version of the venerable
M-113 armored personnel carrier.
The MTVL (Military Tactical Vehicle Light) is an M-113 with a new
hybrid-electric engine; band (rubber) tracks; the same communications suite the
Stryker has; upgraded armor; and (on some models) heavier weapons. United
Defense, the original manufacturer of the M-113, estimates it can convert the
older vehicles into MTVLs for about $400,000 each.
The knock on heavy armor is that large numbers of tanks and Bradleys can't be
moved anywhere fast, and they cost a lot to operate and maintain. The Soviet
Union's collapse and the advent of precision-guided weapons mean armored
divisions no longer make much sense. But we could put an armored cavalry
squadron in every division. This would give lighter forces punch when needed.
Competition in real-world conditions is the best way to determine which machines
and organizational systems are superior. Before dumping a ton of money into the
FCS, the Army should equip several battalions in Iraq with MTVLs, and compare
their performance with that of the Stryker.
Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former marine and a former deputy
assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is
national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.