Never Bring a Stryker to a Tank Fight

[rangerrebew]

Never Bring a Stryker to a Tank Fight
By James King
May 02, 2017

Any armchair Patton will tell you that it’s not a good idea to use a Stryker formation against a tank formation.  But in a recent article for the Modern War Institute, Capt. Andrew Gregory argues that adding a 30-millimeter cannon to the Stryker would make it a more lethal weapon system—an upgrade he says is made necessary by changes in the contemporary operating environment.   While he notes that the up-gunned Stryker still shouldn’t be used to directly engage armored formations, his argument is short of convincing.  The reality is the Stryker was not designed to trade shots at distance with an enemy armored force, and by adding a 30-millimeter cannon it will only create a false sense of security and encourage commanders to do just that.

What is a Stryker?

http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/05/02/never_bring_a_stryker_to_a_tank_fight_111295.html

[thackney]

Essential to the discussion:

The Bradley was designed to fight through to an objective, only dismounting its small number of infantry once it arrived.  Infantry, however, is not the priority with the Bradley.  This made it a good vehicle to fight alongside M1 Abrams Tanks.  The Stryker on the other hand has a different job entirely.

As Capt. Gregory notes, by doctrine the Stryker was intended to be used as an armored troop transport—a formation centered around the Infantry squad.  A Stryker formation would dismount its infantry one terrain feature away from the objective.  The dismounted infantry would then assault the objective with the vehicles they left behind providing supporting fires from either their MK-19 grenade launchers or .50-caliber machine guns.  These objectives are intended to be ones that light infantry would be traditionally tasked with.  Nowhere in the doctrine does it discuss Strykers matching up with enemy armored forces.  The greatest tragedy for a Stryker formation is a destroyed Stryker with its squad still in the back, which is exactly what would happen when put up against a tank.