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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
The 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will be the first of the Army’s five Stryker brigades to go to Iraq with all 10 variants of its namesake armored vehicle, as well as with other advanced weapons systems.
Strykers made their combat debut in November 2003 after more than three years in development. The Army created the brigades as a middle alternative to its heavy armored formations and its light infantry units.
Previous brigades deployed with versions of the eight-wheeled Stryker designed for eight specialized functions: infantry carrier, reconnaissance, command, medical, fire support, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, and engineer.
The 4th Brigade will take two additional versions. Also, one of its infantry battalions will be the first in the Army to go into combat wearing a high-tech system to help soldiers shoot, move and communicate.
Mobile Gun System
Five years in development, the vehicle is armed with a 105 mm cannon that fires four types of rounds designed to blast through walls, destroy enemy bunkers or clear the streets of fighters. The brigade is equipped with 27 of the $3.7 million vehicles.
How will soldiers use it? In a major engagement at Fallujah in 2005, Marines and soldiers quickly learned that insurgents had set up bombs and ambushes along nearly every street in the city. Troops had to blast their way through buildings to avoid the kill zones.
Stryker commanders said they could use the Mobile Gun System against sniper nests. And just having the big gun on the street will have an intimidating effect, they said.
Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle
The NBC vehicle is equipped with an array of sensors to detect radiation and biological and chemical agents, and to collect and analyze samples.
There are three of the $2.1 million vehicles, and they might be called to the scene of an attack where industrial gases might be present. Insurgents three times this month have set off improvised bombs attached to tanks of chlorine gas, U.S. military officials said.
Otherwise, commanders will likely use the specialized vehicles for general armored transportation. Each is armed with a .50-caliber machine gun and equipped with the same communications and computer gear as other versions of the Stryker.
Land Warrior System
The Army has been working for more than a decade to develop a light-weight ensemble of computers, radios, cameras, a Global Positioning System and lasers that soldiers can wear in combat. The goal is to greatly enhance their knowledge of their surroundings, their ability to communicate and the precision of their fire.
One of the 4th Brigade’s three infantry battalions – the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment – has been training for nearly a year with the latest version of the Land Warrior System. It still has glitches, but leaders in the unit and the brigade were satisfied with its performance enough to take it to Iraq.
Still, the Army earlier this month proposed to cancel $170 million it was to have spent developing the system for three Stryker brigades. Officials said the Army wants to spend the money now on more immediate needs, but that funding for a program such as Land Warrior would likely return as part of the service’s massive Future Combat System program.[...]