Re: NOTÍCIAS
Enviado: Sáb Out 10, 2009 7:26 pm
U.S. To Switch 2 Heavy Brigades to Strykers
Critics Cite Risks of Going Light
By GINA CAVALLARO and kris osborn
Published: 5 October 2009 Print | Email
The U.S. Army will convert two of its heavy brigade combat teams to Stryker brigades built around the lighter, faster and more versatile Stryker wheeled vehicles by 2013.
The 1st Armored Division's 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT) will make the switch following its return home from Iraq in late 2010. The following summer, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) will convert after its scheduled deployment to Iraq, according to the Army decision document signed by Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, and obtained by Defense News. The conversions will each take two years to complete.
The Army announced a contract award Oct. 1 for 352 Strykers, worth $647 million, to General Dynamics.
The House Appropriations Committee added $255 million to the 2010 budget request to fund additional Stryker vehicles, but that bill has yet to be approved by the congressional conference that will follow.
Stryker vehicles will be among those used to replace at least 6,000 1960s-era M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, slated to be replaced, a senior Army source said. Bradleys, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and the still-to-be-developed Ground Combat Vehicles could also be among the replacements, he said, as part of the Army's evolving Combat and Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Strategy.
Each new Stryker brigade will include 332 of the eight-wheeled vehicles in several different versions.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, deputy chief of staff for Army programs, said in a telephone interview that the Stryker brigades the Army has fielded thus far have proven to be "one of the most flexible, adaptable and successful units; the vehicle itself has been a key part of that formation."
Meanwhile, the Army will take 3rd ACR's Longknife aviation squadron, consisting of 24 AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopters, and use them as the basis to build a new combat aviation brigade. Tanks and Bradleys from the two units will be used to upgrade other heavy units, the document says.
Stryker brigades are built around a command-and-control platform that is lighter, more quickly deployable on the battlefield and more versatile, with close to 2,000 infantrymen, a reconnaissance squadron and enablers most other brigades don't have.
Stryker Brigade Combat Team (BCT) formations typically have 300 Stryker vehicles, each carrying nine infantrymen and are able to barrel down highways at up to 60 miles per hour.
"It can self-deploy in theater," said 1st Sgt. Marc Griffith, a former Ranger who served for 15 months with 4th SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. "An HBCT would need to be shipped in and an IBCT [Infantry BCT] needs to be flown in. A Stryker brigade can basically drive itself from Kuwait to Mosul [Iraq] and back in two days."
The shift to the wheeled vehicle formation signals a reversal of plans for the Army, which had sought to add heavy brigades as recently as April, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates nixed that plan and held the service to 45 brigade combat teams, instead of the 48 it had been building toward. The last three of those brigades were to have been heavy armored BCTs.
The additional Stryker brigades will bring to eight the total number of Stryker BCTs.
One source said up to three more brigades could be converted to Strykers, but Army officials refused to speculate on other future plans. These could be converted from either light or heavy BCTs.
Stryker brigades are better suited to the near free-form modern battlefield, rather than the matched-force scenarios envisioned for tanks during the Cold War. What's more, the Stryker vehicles, which are lighter than MRAPs and tanks, can go into areas those vehicles cannot.
"We went down streets that other vehicles couldn't fit into, into areas where there were canals or across bridges that heavier vehicles couldn't cross," said Col. John RisCassi, former commander of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. RisCassi's unit spent most of 15 months in Iraq in and around Baghdad, sometimes slicing off battalions to work with other brigades that sought their capability, he said.
"We had the ability to transfer from hardball road to off-road quickly and deploy the infantrymen where they were needed on the battlefield," RisCassi said. "You may not want to have an M1 Abrams roll down a street. It could destroy a street and that may do more damage in a counterinsurgency environment than having a wheeled vehicle roll down."
Strykers first deployed to combat in 2003 in northern Iraq; the vehicles made it to Afghanistan for the first time this past June.
The Stryker's ability to deploy more infantryman on the battlefield than any other type of brigade and its wheeled configuration are key advantages over conventional armor formations. Strykers also feature a sophisticated communications package that consists of Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below, the Army's tactical Internet, GPS and radio systems, which give leaders multiple ways of communicating on the battlefield.
Giving up heavy brigades won't come without risks, some observers said. Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey acknowledged that Stryker brigades are great for putting infantrymen on the ground quickly, but have their limits.
"My No. 1 concern, bar none," he said, "is: Are we prepared to conduct high intensity combat operations against a force like the North Koreans where, in the space of 90 days, we've got to go in and fight on the ground?"
He added: "People say high intensity combat is over and that's just flippin' nonsense. I wouldn't argue against [making more Stryker brigades] as a course of action, but I'm articulating a major concern that we rebuild and protect high intensity combat forces. And that ain't Stryker."
Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division from 2002 to 2005, agreed.
"What's going on is that we're fixated only on the counterinsurgency fight," Batiste said. "But God help us if we lose the skills that we had in the late '80s and early '90s to deal with a conventional adversary. Right now, with our focus on Iraq and Afghanistan for the last eight years, that skill has eroded, it's completely gone away. And if I were the chief of staff of the Army, that's what would keep me up at night."
E-mail: gcavallaro@militarytimes.com, kosborn@defensenews.com.
Critics Cite Risks of Going Light
By GINA CAVALLARO and kris osborn
Published: 5 October 2009 Print | Email
The U.S. Army will convert two of its heavy brigade combat teams to Stryker brigades built around the lighter, faster and more versatile Stryker wheeled vehicles by 2013.
The 1st Armored Division's 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT) will make the switch following its return home from Iraq in late 2010. The following summer, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) will convert after its scheduled deployment to Iraq, according to the Army decision document signed by Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, and obtained by Defense News. The conversions will each take two years to complete.
The Army announced a contract award Oct. 1 for 352 Strykers, worth $647 million, to General Dynamics.
The House Appropriations Committee added $255 million to the 2010 budget request to fund additional Stryker vehicles, but that bill has yet to be approved by the congressional conference that will follow.
Stryker vehicles will be among those used to replace at least 6,000 1960s-era M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, slated to be replaced, a senior Army source said. Bradleys, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and the still-to-be-developed Ground Combat Vehicles could also be among the replacements, he said, as part of the Army's evolving Combat and Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Strategy.
Each new Stryker brigade will include 332 of the eight-wheeled vehicles in several different versions.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, deputy chief of staff for Army programs, said in a telephone interview that the Stryker brigades the Army has fielded thus far have proven to be "one of the most flexible, adaptable and successful units; the vehicle itself has been a key part of that formation."
Meanwhile, the Army will take 3rd ACR's Longknife aviation squadron, consisting of 24 AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopters, and use them as the basis to build a new combat aviation brigade. Tanks and Bradleys from the two units will be used to upgrade other heavy units, the document says.
Stryker brigades are built around a command-and-control platform that is lighter, more quickly deployable on the battlefield and more versatile, with close to 2,000 infantrymen, a reconnaissance squadron and enablers most other brigades don't have.
Stryker Brigade Combat Team (BCT) formations typically have 300 Stryker vehicles, each carrying nine infantrymen and are able to barrel down highways at up to 60 miles per hour.
"It can self-deploy in theater," said 1st Sgt. Marc Griffith, a former Ranger who served for 15 months with 4th SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. "An HBCT would need to be shipped in and an IBCT [Infantry BCT] needs to be flown in. A Stryker brigade can basically drive itself from Kuwait to Mosul [Iraq] and back in two days."
The shift to the wheeled vehicle formation signals a reversal of plans for the Army, which had sought to add heavy brigades as recently as April, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates nixed that plan and held the service to 45 brigade combat teams, instead of the 48 it had been building toward. The last three of those brigades were to have been heavy armored BCTs.
The additional Stryker brigades will bring to eight the total number of Stryker BCTs.
One source said up to three more brigades could be converted to Strykers, but Army officials refused to speculate on other future plans. These could be converted from either light or heavy BCTs.
Stryker brigades are better suited to the near free-form modern battlefield, rather than the matched-force scenarios envisioned for tanks during the Cold War. What's more, the Stryker vehicles, which are lighter than MRAPs and tanks, can go into areas those vehicles cannot.
"We went down streets that other vehicles couldn't fit into, into areas where there were canals or across bridges that heavier vehicles couldn't cross," said Col. John RisCassi, former commander of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. RisCassi's unit spent most of 15 months in Iraq in and around Baghdad, sometimes slicing off battalions to work with other brigades that sought their capability, he said.
"We had the ability to transfer from hardball road to off-road quickly and deploy the infantrymen where they were needed on the battlefield," RisCassi said. "You may not want to have an M1 Abrams roll down a street. It could destroy a street and that may do more damage in a counterinsurgency environment than having a wheeled vehicle roll down."
Strykers first deployed to combat in 2003 in northern Iraq; the vehicles made it to Afghanistan for the first time this past June.
The Stryker's ability to deploy more infantryman on the battlefield than any other type of brigade and its wheeled configuration are key advantages over conventional armor formations. Strykers also feature a sophisticated communications package that consists of Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below, the Army's tactical Internet, GPS and radio systems, which give leaders multiple ways of communicating on the battlefield.
Giving up heavy brigades won't come without risks, some observers said. Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey acknowledged that Stryker brigades are great for putting infantrymen on the ground quickly, but have their limits.
"My No. 1 concern, bar none," he said, "is: Are we prepared to conduct high intensity combat operations against a force like the North Koreans where, in the space of 90 days, we've got to go in and fight on the ground?"
He added: "People say high intensity combat is over and that's just flippin' nonsense. I wouldn't argue against [making more Stryker brigades] as a course of action, but I'm articulating a major concern that we rebuild and protect high intensity combat forces. And that ain't Stryker."
Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division from 2002 to 2005, agreed.
"What's going on is that we're fixated only on the counterinsurgency fight," Batiste said. "But God help us if we lose the skills that we had in the late '80s and early '90s to deal with a conventional adversary. Right now, with our focus on Iraq and Afghanistan for the last eight years, that skill has eroded, it's completely gone away. And if I were the chief of staff of the Army, that's what would keep me up at night."
E-mail: gcavallaro@militarytimes.com, kosborn@defensenews.com.
