New Stryker vehicles tested

Photo By Sgt. Thomas Day | Sgt. 1st Class John Abronski, a platoon sergeant for the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, works the radio for test fires at the Udairi range Friday.  

05.02.2007

Story by Sgt. Thomas Day 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

By Sgt. Thomas L. Day
40th Public Affairs Detachment

KUWAIT — The 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division is making a debut of sorts. For its first time in combat, the newest edition of the Stryker vehicle will roll into Iraq, under the direction of this Fort Lewis, Wash. based unit.

The arrival of the vehicles drew a visit from Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, Third Army/U.S. Army Central commanding general, during their training at the Udairi ranges in Kuwait.

What Whitcomb saw were armored vehicles that test the bounds of imagination. 2nd ID commanders talk about their Strykers as if they were characters in a science-fiction film.

"What we're doing here is making sure the computer solutions match up with the ballistics of the barrel," said Maj. Keith Markham, the unit's executive officer, as his Strykers were test firing, April 20.

The Strykers use digital targeting to mark the wind factor, the cant of the vehicle, as well as the barometric pressure. The newest edition includes a mounted Mobile Gun System, an update which gives unprecedented firing capability for the Stryker vehicles.

The Mobile Gun System adds a 105-mm cannon, a mounted M-240C machine gun and a pedestal-mounted M2 .50 caliber machine gun to the four-year old Stryker.

The test fires at Udairi marked the first time the new unit had fired with live, explosive rounds.

"We are an infantry support vehicle," said Sgt. 1st Class John Abronski, a 4-9th Infantry platoon sergeant. With operational security concerns, Abronski would not discuss specifics about how the Stryker will be used in Iraq, only providing this admonition: "If I was looking down this barrel, I'd consider it a deterrent."

1st Lt. J. Dow Covey, a platoon leader with 4-9th Infantry, credits the Stryker as the primogeniture of the World War II-era assault guns. "This is just the next generation of that [Assault Gun]... It's new to use, but the concept is actually very old."

• Date Taken: 05.02.2007
• Date Posted: 05.02.2007 11:11
• Story ID: 10211