Stryker Brigade News

"The Stryker Armour vehicle brings to the battle field that greatly enhance and enable our soldiers when they go into combat," said Major General John Brown. One of the most critical purposes of the Stryker is the ability to transmit situational awareness. This allows the soldier to know where they are located, this information is given on a TV screen using electronic maps, which in turn tells them where the enemy is. "We can see everything around us we know what's there we know what we're looking at we can target things, destroy things and everything is going to be secure before we get out of this vehicle," said PFC Angel Burgos. There are ten vehicles in the Stryker family, three of which were on display today. The infantry carrier, which provides protected transport, and direct fire support during the dismounted assault. The medical evacuations vehicle, this is basically this is the primary ambulance platform. Finally, the reconnaissance vehicle or reconn. which is typically on the front line in the battle field, its basically the eyes and ears form the entire battalion, its job is to see the enemy but not to be scene by the enemy. Just to give you a little background, there are six Stryker Brigade Combat teams in the nation, each has about 308 vehicle per brigade. The 172nd Striker Brigade here in Alaska currently has sixty vehicles, that will increase to 268 by December, "Been waiting for a year they're ready, they've been going thru a bunch of other training just to get ready for this vehicle," commented Staff Sgt. Steven Martinez. So how durable are the Strykers, well according to Army officials fourteen Strykers have been hit while in combat in Iraq, however, no soldier has been killed to date, and all but one was able to roll away. The price tag for this protection can run you anywhere from 1.3 million dollars to 2 million dollars. Soldiers in the 172nd Stryker Brigade will train on the Strykers for the next year, and after that Army officials say they will be prepared for deployment by late summer, early fall of 2005.