By Calvin Biesecker
With drug-related violence on the southwest border spilling over into the United States the country should consider sending a Stryker brigade and other military systems to the southern border to prevent the Mexican drug cartels from coming into the United States, a House member said this week.
Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, said that the United States needs to “beef” up its presence on the southwest border and a Stryker brigade “would be something perhaps this Congress should look at.”
Miller said that the Stryker “seems good” for the National Guard’s mission on the southwest border, pointing out that the wheeled vehicle can be used on the road infrastructure in the region.
The U.S. Army operates with its Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pennsylvania Army National Guard is the only National Guard Stryker Brigade Combat Team and has operated with its vehicles in Iraq.
The eight-wheeled Stryker is a modified version of a light armored vehicle and is built by General Dynamics [GD]. The company makes 10 Stryker variants such as the mobile gun system, command, and reconnaissance vehicles.
For the current National Guard mission on the southern border, which ends in June, sending a Stryker brigade would likely be too costly, the chief of the Arizona National Guard said at a hearing on Tuesday hosted by Miller’s subcommittee.
“A Stryker brigade, in my opinion, would probably be a little bit too much unless the use of force is the objective, which I wouldn’t be able to analyze or provide any kind of input that that’s really an effective use of a Stryker brigade,” Maj. Gen. Hugo Salazar, adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard, said.
Salazar said that his guard forces operating in support of the Border Patrol along Arizona’s border with Mexico are basically providing look-out services, which don’t require large military vehicles.
“When you talk about capabilities, specifically what we can provide to law enforcement, we can provide the same type of observation and reconnaissance with a much smaller package like the entry identification teams we’re doing now,” Salazar said. “We are talking about fiscal responsibility here. And in my personal opinion and from my personal experience in Arizona you would get a lot more bang for the buck using the funds to enhance entry identification kinds of support as opposed to the huge cost of bringing in a Stryker brigade.”
A Stryker BCT typically includes more than 300 Stryker vehicles, which cost roughly $4 million apiece depending on the variant. The vehicles themselves get fewer than 6 miles to a gallon of fuel.
Miller said she appreciated Salazar’s answer but pointed out that there is a lot of “consternation” among members of her committee about the planned drawdown of the National Guard along the southern border in June. In her opening remarks she said some areas of the border resemble a “war zone.”
In July 2010 1,200 National Guard troops began supporting Customs and Border Protection along the southern border as part of Operation Phalanx. Funding for that deployment ends in June.
Michael Fisher, chief of the Border Patrol, said ongoing increases in Border Patrol agent staffing will offset the pending withdrawal of the National Guard units.
Miller also said that the committee is going to be looking at other “off-the-shelf technology” that is in use by the military for application to border security missions. In addition to unmanned aerial vehicles that are already operating along the border, Miller said that robotic land systems may be useful for missions at the nation’s northern and southern borders.
Miller said she would like DHS and the Defense Department to share more resources with regard to border security.