Regimental Engineer Squadron, 2d Cav @ Allied Spirit IV (pics by Sgt. William A. Tanner) and an opportunity to revitalize USMC Combat Engineers...

The US Army's Stryker has more than its fair share of critics but considering the budget environment we're headed into its seeming more and more like brilliance in a box.

What do I mean?  They've built on the M-113 experience and developed a family of vehicles based on this platform (they're slowly doing the same with the Bradley hull...I'm patiently waiting to see a cost benefit analysis of these moves).

The USMC should do the same.  With the winner of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle, and with a push from the Commandant we could revitalize almost our entire ground maneuver element.  An engineer variant is a no brainer.  The Army shows how it could be done and again I'm thinking that piggybacking off the work done with the Stryker, properly modified for the USMC is the way to go.

Of course it also points to other issues.  Combat Engineers need effective rides to keep up with the ACV and a engineer ACV makes sense, but we also need to solve the Tank issue.  I'm torn on whether a mobile gun system on the ACV is good enough or if we must have the M1A2 sometime in the future.

The only thing that is certain is that the budget trainwreck is destroying US ground combat power and the over reliance on air power will bite us sometime in the future.