Reply #5: Strykers are now on patrol in Iraq [View All]

[amandabeech]

Check out this story in the Tacoma News Tribune:


Pair of Stryker Vehicles Come Under Fire in Iraq

1/31/2004 by Michael Gilbert

The Army's new Stryker vehicle had its first combat encounter with a rocket-propelled grenade Friday.

The round struck the front of the vehicles above its slat armor cage, cutting a hose inside the engine compartment. The vehicle commander suffered a superficial cut near his nose, officials said.

<snip>

Depending on the type, RPGs are capable of boring through a Stryker's armor and spraying hot shrapnel all around the interior of the vehicle.

Friday's strike didn't answer the question of whether the slat armor will work as advertised and diffuse the impact of the RPG before it strikes the body of the vehicle.


Lots more, but you get the drift.

These things sound about as safe in Iraq, home of the RPG, as the British Navy's "battle cruisers" were in the WWI Battle of Jutland (if I recall correctly). The British convinced themselves that the lightly armored battle cruisers would stand up in battle just as well as the heavily armored battleships. Ordinary German naval guns blasted them out of the water with great loss of life.

ARGH!

Amanda