STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – As the first prototype Stryker armed with a 30mm cannon whipped through the parking lot of General Dynamics [GD] here, Col. William Rockefeller could already see the vehicle as it would be used on similar cold, dreary days in Eastern Germany.
“We’re already pretty happy with the vehicle,” Rockefeller, deputy commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, said during the vehicle’s rollout ceremony on a cold, rainy Thursday that many in attendance likened to a normal day in Vilseck, Germany, where the unit is based. “We will have the ability to engage light-armor targets and vehicle targets with the 30mm and that’s going to save our missiles for a heavier threat,” Rockefeller said.
All 81 of the up-gunned Stryker are earmarked for the 2nd Cavalry in Germany, which filed an urgent needs statement with the Pentagon just 15 months ago for a vehicle that would add offensive punch to its mobile infantry. After witnessing the Russian ground invasion of Ukraine, unit commander realized their end of the spear in a potential war with Moscow lacked a sharp enough point.
“It’s all about the squads that come out of the back,” Rockefeller said. “The firepower and the extended range this platform is going to give us will increase the lethality of those squads.”
A Stryker regiment’s primary anti-vehicle weapon is the Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). As the 30mm Stryker comes online, those ATGM variants are freed up from addressing smaller targets and can focus on heavy armor like tanks, Rockefeller said.
Last July, the Army approved a directed requirement to increase lethality for 81 Stryker vehicles for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment to provide Stryker brigade combat teams (SBCTs) with direct-fire support to its mounted and dismounted infantry. That led to an accelerated acquisition effort to integrate an unmanned turret with a 30mm cannon on to a Stryker that will field in summer 2018.
The upgraded Stryker vehicle will be known as the, Dragoon, the name of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and we recently assigned the nomenclature XM1296 Infantry Carrier Vehicle – Dragoon.
What followed was, by Defense Department standards, the lightning-fast design, build and integration of a Kongsberg remotely operated, unmanned turret armed with an Orbital ATK [OA] 30mm cannon and the necessary suspension and hull modifications.
“That’s pretty fast when you talking about an integrated system with thousands of parts and an advanced weapon system,” said Maj. Gen. David Bassett, program executive officer for ground combat systems (PEO GCS). “This program shows that with the right set of requirements, available resources, the technology that is available and a committed team, there is nothing we can’t do together.”
The vehicle rolled out Thursday is the first of eight that soon will undergo manufacturer shakedown testing and then begin delivery to the Army before the end of December. The vehicles will enter government testing in January and should be fielded to Europe in summer 2018, said Col. Glenn Dean, the Army’s Stryker program manager.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn praised General Dynamics for once again delivering an urgently needed combat capability in “record time,” noting that the company in 2011 began delivery of reinforced double-V hull Strykers to Iraq and Afghanistan within 15 months of receiving the order.
“This is clearly what is possible when government, civilian and industry leaders work together,” Allyn said. “What made it possible was a combination of leadership, expertise and communication.”
Bassett said the program’s ultimate success rested with the Army’s ability to curb its appetite for revolutionary technology and focus on mature technologies that could deliver a clearly defined capability need.
“With this effort, we didn’t allow technologies in that weren’t going to be mature, that would meet these timelines,” Bassett told Defense Daily. “You have to make sure that the maturity of the systems that you are allowing to be integrated is consistent with your budget and your timeline. It really does require that you have a certain degree of discipline about what and when you introduce.”