Colonel Macgregor: Stryker Fatally Flawed

2009 UPDATE: Soldiers call Strykers "Kevlar Coffins"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/05/armored-troop-carriers-unsafe...

As we have stated all along, riding up & down roads in wheeled trucks and giving the enemy easy targets for land mines is tactically unsound. Due to heavy casualties in flat-bottomed trucks like Strykers and Humvees, DoD has resorted to v-hull shaped MRAP trucks which is progress but still far from the cross-country mobility we need from tracks that can also have superior armor layers and mobile firepower weaponry. Some inexperienced troops might mistake internal poilicing for actual nation-state war and assume that if they were lucky and did not get killed or maimed as their peers did that Strykers are aok. They are not ok and represent the same failed BTR motorized infantry that failed in the last Afghanistan war.

Let's hope we can rid America's Army from the wheeled truck mentality before we lose a war and continue to lose
troops and costs our economy cannot support.
http://www.douglasmacgregor.com

Find out where the Iraq Debacle began!

http://www.warriorsrage.com

On 26 February 1991, cavalry troops of ""Cougar Squadron,"" the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, charged out of a sandstorm during Operation Desert Storm and caught Iraq's Republican Guard Corps in the open desert along the North-South grid line of a military map referred to as the ""73 Easting."" Taken by surprise, the defending Iraqi armor brigade was swept away in salvos of American tank and missile fire in what became the U.S. Army's largest tank battle since World War II.

Douglas Macgregor, the man who trained and led Cougar Squadron into battle, recounts two stories. One is the inspiring tale of the valiant American soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains who fought and won the battle. The other is a story of failed generalship, one that explains why Iraq's Republican Guard escaped, ensuring that Saddam Hussein's regime survived and America's war with Iraq dragged on.

Certain to provoke debate, this is the latest book from the controversial and influential military veteran whose two previous books, Breaking the Phalanx and Transformation Under Fire, are credited with influencing thinking and organization inside America's ground forces and figure prominently in current discussions about military strategy and defense policies. Its fast-moving battle narrative, told from the vantage point of Macgregor's Abrams tank, and its detailed portraits of American soldiers, along with vivid descriptions of the devastating technology of mounted warfare, will captivate anyone with a taste for adventure as well as an interest in contemporary military history.

Douglas Macgregor, Colonel, USA (Ret.), is a decorated combat veteran with a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia. He is the author of Breaking the Phalanx and Transformation under Fire and is a frequent guest on television and radio news shows. He is the lead partner of the Potomac League, LLC, in Reston, VA.

Praise for his Transformation Under Fire:

""Transformation Under Fire offers a strident critique of recent Army transformation efforts while also providing the reader a comprehensive vision of near-term changes within the Department of Defense that could truly enhance our military's ability to conduct joint expeditionary operations. . . . Essential reading for military professionals and for those with oversight of defense programs.""Army Magazine

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• stryker
• fiasco
• iraq
• occupation
• kevlar
• coffins
• deathtraps
• trucks
• land
• mines
• high
• explosives
• bombs
• road-bound
• road
• kill
• btr
• russian
• mistake
• afghanistan
• casualties
• deaths
• motorized
• infantry
• rpg
• molotov
• cocktails
• lemmings
• yes-men
• naive
• gullible

[Squarerig]

The old Rhodesian Army had V-bottomed armoured vehicles back in the 1970's and they were all home produced.Many had wheels which blew off when mined and the US is spending milliards of dollars attempting to create something "new".Also the old Daimler DIngo from WWII with a 37mm cannon could easily reach 55-65 mph and could be driven in both directions with a rotating driver's seat.Are they all outmoded?

[douglasmacgregorTV]

@Squarerig These were make-shift vehicles to meet war crisises; the U.S. Army needs to fight and win with dominance not get-by; this means we need v-hulled and multiple bottom layered tracks that can maneuver cross-country away from roads/trails and not use protection as their crutch.

[Stretedge]

wolf blitzer is a nazi!

[anthony9thompson]

Show me positive comments from soldiers that have discharged. These guys look like they are reading from a script with a dozen officers leaning over their shoulders

[bklacc1]

@sgtpayn3 forget about the rpg cookin u, cause the HEAT will lol because of m deployment, i kno what baked pork chops feel like.

[Vietboy1st]

lighter armored means more good soldiers will get kill... So i rather have heavy armored which can safe the soldier lives.

[TheJamesrocket]

@douglasmacgregorTV Exactly. Strykers will be useless in a real fight. They're bound to the road (where they can be easily ambushed), are too thinly armored, and they only have a bloody machine gun to boot! A gavin has none of those weakness, and it is only a fraction of the cost. The solution is in plain sight, the army must be blind not to see it.

[douglasmacgregorTV]

@daveme7 Engine power will not solve high ground pressure from narrow tires that mire vehicles in soft ground.

[douglasmacgregorTV]

@thenoobfactor The Stryker isn't light or mobile; MTVL Gavins are. We need a CAVALRY; Strykers should be transferred to MP brigades for road security work.

[sgtpayn3]

I rode on an LAV. those strykers are the same thing just new. i think the lav is very goood and in a way in battle makes you wanna not be in there. simply it makes you a bigger target. and Rpgs go in there and cook you up. its nice to use as cover and it saves you the walk plus it looks intimidating. its up to experience i think. if you suffer in these or if you didnt you know?

[WunderDoob]

I'll take a BMP, thanks.

[daveme7]

I did google what you listed and took me right to the FMTV family of vehicles so if I got the exact wrong vehicle and is some super wonder vehicle-please excuse my ignorance-been retired for about 4 years now. Where has the time gone and how did I ever get blown the 'f up. Still cant wrap my head around that-Emme or emmis if you knew me.