THE US Army is having to add extra armour to protect its new (pounds) 10bn fleet of ''lightweight'' Stryker personnel carriers, which are about to make their active service debut in Iraq, because the vehicles are too thin-skinned to withstand the impact of rocket-propelled grenades.
The Stryker, an eight-wheeled, 19-ton armoured car that weighs about half as much as traditional tracked armoured carriers, was designed to be easily transportable by air to allow American forces to deploy in strength at short notice to global flashpoints.
About 300 of them are about to be sent to Iraq to equip a 3600-man infantry brigade operating in the dangerous ''Sunni triangle'' area of the country north and east of Baghdad.
To enable accelerated development, the vehicle specifications did not feature anti-RPG armour.
It was field tested only against rifle and machine-guns.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Barger, a US Army spokesman, confirmed yesterday that the fleet was now being retro-fitted with temporary ''slat'' armour designed to explode RPG warheads prematurely before they can penetrate the vehicles' 13-man crew compartment.
''This will drastically increase their protection. More permanent armour is now being tested,'' he said.
Built by General Dynamics, the Stryker is designed to bridge the gap between light forces such as paratroopers and mechanised units using 53-ton Abrams tanks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article