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New Stryker Defense Proven in Combat

Feb- 3-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

[Link to Full Article]

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

MOSUL, Iraq, Feb. 3, 2004 – A change made to the Stryker infantry vehicle has proven itself in combat.

The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – also called Task Force Olympia after its Fort Lewis, Wash., home -- is replacing the 101st Airborne Division in this city.

The Stryker, an eight-wheeled infantry transporter, is an armored vehicle designed to stop 124.5 mm rounds. Critics said the main threat in Iraq is rocket-propelled grenades, and that the vehicle would not provide protection from them.

Army officials outfitted the Strykers with what the soldiers call a "cage." The slat armor put on the vehicles in Kuwait does look like a cage. It encircles the vehicle and gives added protection to the body of the Stryker. It is slats placed about 18 inches away from the main body. The theory was that an RPG would hit the slat and "defuse" between the slat and the main armor, said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the brigade commander.

The theory was exactly right, he said. "A bit earlier this morning there was an RPG attack against a Stryker vehicle in the eastern part of Mosul," he said to reporters traveling with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "It was the second attack against a Stryker, but the first to strike the slat armor.


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