Stryker not up to speed in some areas, soldiers claim.

The Arm/s new eight-wheel drive vehicle appears to meet the service's overall expectations, but soldiers who participated in recent exercises pointed out several shortcomings in the Stryker that, they said, need to be fixed.

Some of problems the soldiers cited include discomfort caused by intense heat inside the vehicle, the lack of full-color sensors and the high rate of tire damage.

During the Millennium Challenge experiments in the Mojave Desert this summer, soldiers oftentimes operated in temperatures of 100 degrees and above, without any kind of air conditioning system inside the Stryker.

"It is a lot hotter inside, because the metal retains all that heat and it is 120-124 inside, so driving around the vehicle it is pretty hot," said Spc. Jeremy Blackwood, with the first Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) at Fort Lewis, Wash.

The soldiers' "first request is an environmental control unit inside the Stryker," said Lt. Col. Michael Gray, who works in the Stryker fielding office at Fort Lewis. "That is something we need to look at. I think that is their biggest concern right now, moving from point A to point B in the desert."

The vehicle not only gets hot, but it also has limited space for the crew. "Space is one of the inconveniences that we have to get used to and work on," said Blackwood. "We have a lot of guys and a lot of equipment to put in, lot of ammunition, a lot of guns, and all these we have to confine in a very small space."

The remote weapons system (RWS) is a useful capability, but it "needs some work," said Staff Sgt. Mitchell Elwood, from Fort Lewis.

"The thermal sensors need to be upgraded," he told National Defense. "It needs to have a cool thermal system with a wide field of view and a narrow field of view where you can scan an entire area and then zoom in and detect various types of targets.

"I just feel that this generation thermal has isn't up to speed with what the Army could give us," he noted. Also, he added, the day-vision sensor images are in black and white. "It has an excellent zoom-in capability, but I think it needs to be in color, because sometimes it is hard to distinguish what kind of enemy you have with just a white-and-black screen," said Elwood.

The RWS should be stabilized, he said, "like the weapons system would be on a tank or a Bradley where you can scan and still be moving at the same time, instead of having to stop, try to find out what you have and then move again.

"It makes you more vulnerable if you have to stop, because it gives the enemy a chance to also detect, recognize you and engage you."

Since the Fort Lewis brigades began training with the Canadian LAV III (the baseline vehicle for the Stryker) two years ago, fiat tires have not been as issue, said Elwood, but the terrain in the Mojave Desert created problems for the tires.

"We experienced a high volume of tire damage out here on the Strykers, but I attribute that to the terrain and the fact that the unit operating out in Washington State did not experience the same lava rock terrain as they did down here," said Gray. "If you look at the Marines in Afghanistan tight now, they are experiencing the same higher damage [with the LAV] that we experienced here in much larger volume."

Massive tire damage was one of the main complaints about the LAV from the Marines returning from Afghanistan. (National Defense, July 2002)

"Flat tires don't slow you down," Elwood noted. "We find ourselves surprising the enemy position through the high ground we were able to crest with the vehicle."

Stryker program officials will be studying the tire problem in detail in the coming months, he added. "If there is, in fact, a defect with that tire, they will get with Michelin, the producer, to increase the strength of the side walls" or replace the tires completely if it was a bad lot of tires, he said.

Gray also pointed out that part of the problem might have been incorrect settings in the central tire inflation system on the Stryker. "We need to make sure that the soldiers are operating the Stryker in the proper setting," he said. "If they are in soft sand, it needs to be in what is called the snow/mud setting, but once they get out of that and they don't reset to the cross country or highway setting," the side walls would be more exposed than they would under sand conditions, "so we need to ensure that the soldiers remember to put it back."

Because of the tire failure rate in the desert, Gray said, the Army is going to suggest the Stryker carry a spare tire.

Although the Army demonstrated that the Stryker fits into the C-130, the service had to work closely with the Air Force to make the vehicle C-130 transportable.

C-130 Transportability

"The Air Force has been helpful and positive in their support of our Millennium Challenge experiment" said Gen. Robert Dail, Army chief of transportation. "Today, we are working with the Air Force. We are making sure that we are learning from our techniques, we are learning some additional things that we may have to do as far as procedures and preparing the airlift, the platforms for airlift."

Dail said the Army received a waiver for the exercise because the vehicle exceeded the height threshold specified for the C-130 cargo bay. The Army had to ensure that soldiers had enough room to traverse forwards and backwards after the vehicle has been tied down.

"We were able to lower some of the equipment, which provided them a safety access to the rear and aft," said Dail.

"Right now, all we do is remove two of the grenade launchers off the top of the RWS, [and] we remove one of the water cannon holders on the back of the vehicle," said Gray. "That is directed by the Air Force to gain access over the vehicle."

Other than reducing the height of the vehicle to create the 25-inch clearance above the top of the Stryker and the C-130 ceiling, soldiers also had to remove some of their gear. "It's their rucksacks that have to come off," said Gray.

Only the driver and the battle commander were able to fly with the vehicle in a C-130. The Army would like to be able to fit four people.

Dail hinted at the possibility of the Army looking for some sort of permanent waivers for the transport of the Stryker.

"We are going to take the lessons learned from here, see where we can make some changes," said Dail. "Then we'll see where we may go back to the Air Force and see if we can get some more of a permanent established waiver or memorandum agreement," to load and transport the vehicle in combat operations.

The Army deployed 13 Stryker vehicles as part of its forced entry package for Millennium Challenge. On July 26, General Dynamics, the prime contractor for the Stryker, delivered the first of eight pre-production vehicles to the Army. It is part of a $4 billion order awarded in November 2000 to GM GDLS Defense Group to equip the new brigade combat reams with 2,131 Strykers.