There is a piece in the Washington Times today about possible problems using the Stryker in Afghanistan. It raises some scary points and if anyone has insight on this please pipe up, or email me and I will follow up. Since they arrived at the outpost on Sept. 13, the Blackwatch unit - Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, with the 5th Stryker Brigade - had lost three soldiers and two civil affairs officers. IEDs had destroyed three of their four Stryker vehicles. Overall, 21 of 350 Strykers have been destroyed since the 5th Brigade deployed in southern Afghanistan in July; more than two dozen Americans have been killed and nearly 70 wounded. Soldiers call the Strykers "Kevlar coffins," Sgt. Rabidou said. The Stryker is obviously not armored to the extent an MRAP is and it's game is speed and maneuverability. The problem is that we are currently still in a mode similar to Iraq in 2006 where our troops are mostly on bases and have to commute to work. The bad guys know this and are taking a heavy toll with IEDs. The key to beating that can either be to armor up or to work counter measures, which includes surveillance over roadways on a regular basis to identify them as or soon after they are emplaced, and also improved intel from the locals. IEDs are a huge force multiplier for the enemy, and a tremendous challenge for us. However we did learn quite a bit in Iraq that can be applied to the problem in Afghanistan. Some may involve more heavily armored vehicles for transport and some will involve a closer relationship with the locals and staying close to them to cut down identifiable commuting patterns. Either way, or a combination of both, this is a problem that we have seen before and need to deal with as effectively as possible.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/e-yftLeBRqo/stryker-problems-in-afghanistan.html
Posted
Nov 05 2009, 03:16 AM
by
BLACKFIVE