US Army officials are pressing for a massive outlay of money to upgrade the Stryker Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFV) in Eastern Europe, insisting they need to “fast track” the upgrades in anticipation of a full-scale war against Russia, and want to give the Strykers 30 mm cannons.
Introduced in 2002, the Stryker was a US version of the Canadian LAV III, and is primarily meant to be s scout and light fighting vehicle, equipped with a .50 caliber machine gun. The Pentagon appears to be having buyers remorse on the Stryker, which was supposed to be an interim vehicle replaced by a long-since cancelled “future” vehicle.
Army officials say a 30 mm Bushmaster II would allow the Stryker to theoretically destroy anything except for heavy tanks, though in practice the Stryker was never meant to take on tanks, and officials concede that at best with the cannon they could be used to “harass” Russian T-72 tanks.
The configuration appears to be an effort to turn the Stryker into something more resembling the Russian BTR-90, though the BTR-90 is meant as a personnel carrier, not a scout and light fighter.
Ultimately, the Stryker was shoe-horned into a role that didn’t exist before it was created, as a middle-ground between a Humvee and heavier AFVs like the M-2 Bradley. The reason this didn’t exist before was that during the Cold War it would’ve been comparatively useless against Soviet forces. Army officials envisioned it as a lighter, easier to deploy Bradley for use against smaller countries.
Now, with the Army once again talking up a war with Russia, the Stryker doesn’t make much sense, so officials are looking to poor a lot of money into try to transform it into something it was never meant to be.
The Russians must be laughing at this. US military once again clueless and improvi$ing.
Given the centuries-old reputation for incomptenece among Russian officers, they might very well be doing that (and It would be very helpful if they did!). But given the rickety, cold war-era equipment of the Russian army, could even the Russian generals be that incompetent?
The cannon must be understood in conjunction with the anti-tank missiles also carried on that turret. Those missiles are actually rather good as missiles go. They are the weapon against tanks.
I think the 30 mm cannon is more a response to the Russians up-armoring their vehicles other than tanks. They've done that on a wide scale.
Also, the 30 mm would be more effective as an explosive round to suppress Russian dismounted weapon fire, which we did not need to do in our one-sided wars against people who didn't have anti-tank missiles with which to shoot back.
There has also been talk of something even bigger than the 30 mm, such as the Bushmaster IV 40 mm. I sort of expect they'll end up doing that.
To suppress Russia? We need something to SUPRESS THE NEOCON WARMONGERS..
The fools in the defense dept who talk about war with Russia should be cashiered immediately.
Out perfumed dress uniform generals seem to know nothing about the gigantic clash between nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in WWII, The U.S. army will need much more than Strykers with 30mm or 40mm guns, not to mention they will need thousands and thousands of them. And tens of thousands of heavy tanks, artillery pieces, trucks, railroads, paved roads, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition of all sizes from rifle to heavy artillery.
Another thing, West Point graduates (most of them) actually believed in the concept of honor, duty, country. Our chablis drinking society generals care only for their careers, and not one in ten care the lease little bit about maintaining their honor and integrity. For example, see our Iraqi socialite generals.
Nun said.
But what if the Russians just hire Iraqi insurgents to destroy the upgraded Strykers– the way they destroyed American military vehicles during the occupation of Iraq?
But what if the Iraqi insurgents demand as the price for their services that Putin grant independence to the Muslim peoples still under Russian colonial rule?
How about we just mind our own business and get out?
Nobody expected Putin to turn on the rest of Europe as he has. He played the jovial good ol' boy who was everybody's friend. Neither the US nor any other NATO member ever imagined that he would violate the Helsinki Final Act. Thus, everybody has been caught on the hop and must now re-think their strategies and weaponry for a hypothesis that we all thought was definitively history. Given the rickety, cold war-era equipment of the Russian army even a sort of "DIY" job like this is probably useful as a short-term stopgap.
Why do I get the impression that our military has a case of cabin fever and needs someone/thing to destroy? Didn't they learn anything in the past 50 years? They haven't won any serious military conflict since WWII. Why do they think anything has changed?
Antagonistic talk will surely eventually get them the war they think they need because some cowboy with some big toys is going to get antsy and inevitably do something seriously stupid. The Russians are just as prideful as the homeboys here so how long do you think it'll be before the US pushes the Russians too far? That is unless, as I say above, some US "bad apple" starts something on his own.
Everyone should just sit down and shut up – and then grow up. Surely there are some adults at the Pentagon….surely.
Um… we're not at war with Russia, and G-d help the idiot to who gets us into a mess like that. We've got a lot of fine toys in our toybox, but history tells us the Russians as a whole are prepared to sacrifice a whole lot more in wartime.
Oh, and we might want to think about those nuclear things as well. They have those, and lots of them.