via Scout
The upgraded Stryker vehicle will be known as the Dragoon, the name of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. The prototype also features a new fully-integrated commander's station, upgraded driveline, componentry and hull modifications, according to statements from the Army's Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems.A couple of things. Maybe SCOUT was using their title as click bait but the idea that the upgunned Stryker will change infantry combat is a bit over the top. It might change a "few" things for the US Army but others have had this capability for decades.
Called the Stryker Enhanced Lethality Program, the effort was implemented as a rapid-development acquisition program to better equip 9-man infantry units with combat arms to support their missions, maneuvers and ground-attacks.
“It is really about mobile protected fire power for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team. In the Combat Vehicle Modernization Plan it talks about every vehicle having an organic blend of those capabilities… mobility, protection and firepower,” Maj. Gen. David Bassett, Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems, told Scout Warrior in an interview at an Army symposium last year.
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), which builds and engineers the new enhanced lethality Stryker vehicles, is delivery the first eight prototype vehicles in December of this year, Wendy Staiger, Stryker Program Director, GDLS, told Scout Warrior in an interview.
The second thing is that the US Army is really in love with the buzz phrase "mobile protected firepower". I guess IFV is too plain. The problem? None really but the reality is that in many ways we're only beginning to match the capabilities that much smaller forces already possess. That was made clear when the Strykers went on exercise with the Polish Rosomaks.
Still. This is a step in the right direction. Not earth shattering but a proper step.
