Stryker, a family of eight-wheel-drive combat vehicles, is the Army’s highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation. Stryker can travel at speeds up to 62 mph on roads with a range of 312 miles. Stryker operates with the latest C4ISR equipment and an integrated armor package protecting soldiers against improvised explosive devices, rocket propelled grenades and a variety of infantry weapons. Stryker’s current combined fleet operational readiness rate is 96 percent with more than six million miles accumulated through two completed Operation Iraqi Freedom rotations. To augment its protection against RPG attacks, the Stryker vehicle was equipped with a slat-armor cage as an intermediary protection. Further upgrades include reactive armor modules, currently in development under a US$6.7 million US Army contract awarded Sept 15, 2006. The delivery of the reactive armor kits is expected by March 2007.
To support future Stryker upgrades, primarily for the integration into the “Stryker Warrior” and follow-on future combat system architecture, General Dynamics Land Systems is developing a new Power and Data Management Architecture (PDMA) to support future Stryker upgrades and improvements. PDMA system will provide the Stryker with the power and processing capability needed to deploy enhanced integrated capability for current fielded and future production Strykers. In October 2006 The company has been awarded a $3.3 million contract from the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Command TACOM for the initial 12 month phase of a development program which span over four years.
In September 2006 the U.S. Army ordered additional 109 Stryker wheeled combat vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems, under three recent orders valued at US$155 million, increasing the Army’s fiscal year 2006 Stryker procurement to a total of 518 vehicles. Manufacturing of the new vehicles will be completed by October 2008. To date, General Dynamics has delivered more than 1,780 Strykers of the 2,691 included in the U.S. Army’s plans for seven Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.
GDLS is also producing the Light Armored Vehicles (LAV-A2) for the U.S. Marine Corps. The company was recently awarded a contract for $189 million for 151 of the improved A2 variants, as well as 394 conversion kits for existing LAV vehicles, modifying the turret with an electric drives to replace the hydraulic systems in existing vehicle’s turret, made by Delco.
