From: Darrell Ramsell (daram@comcast.net)
Date: Sat Nov 20 2004 - 23:52:17 PST
My friend who's driving a M-2 in Iraq doesn't like them. According to him,
the armor is not capable of stopping .50 cal. rounds. The other issue he
had with them is that they can only mount one weapon system with no
secondary weapon such as a tow with a M-240. Most he said are armed with a
.50 cal. on remote mount. Apparently the army was considering giving some
to his cavalry unit but they didn't want them. They rather have the
Bradley's.
Cliff, what have you heard?
Darrell
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Grammont" <islander@midmaine.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2004 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] M113's in Iraq
> Hi Ryan,
>
>>Oh, granted, they work, but they're not as fast
>>as the wheeled armor is. The Strykers are very
>>quiet. Read some of the AARs or user accounts of
>>their effectiveness. Or better yet, the sped and
>>stealth that they have.
>
> Ryan's correct. Soldiers who are using Strykers, and were initially
> bummed out about it Stateside, are now raving about the things. Remember
> that Stryker that survived the 500lb IED a few weeks ago? According to
> one report I read the vehicle was operational again in 6 days. Another
> drove back to base on 8 flat tires even though in theory it isn't
> designed for that.
>
> While they have not been fully tested (eg: open terrain vs. dug in enemy
> armor), they have proved to be a critical and strategically important
> asset in Iraq. Fast redeployment, absurdly high readiness levels, easy
> repairs to battle damage, stealthy qualities, flexibility, etc. have put
> most in theater critics in their place. I've also not heard much
> negative coming from outside the theater either.
>
> BTW, the 113 that people talked about being used in place of Strykers are
> not the ones being fielded today. That design, the Gavin, is a much
> improved version of the old reliable 113. Pre-Iraq hoobaloo about how
> much better they are vs. Stryker has been pretty much proven to be
> nothing more than ill informed, highly biased, often baseless criticism.
>
> Steve
>
>
> ===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
> To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@mil-veh.org>
> To reach a human, contact <ack@mil-veh.org>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:37:42 PDT