Pair of Stryker vehicles come under fire in Iraq

The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA ^ | January 31st, 2004 | MICHAEL GILBERT

[archy]

25mm *Payload rifle* for infantry. Vehicle versions are ceratinly possible, and would go nicely in a twin-mount.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

It may be that the Stryker's incompatability with the Mark 19 was designed in from the get-go.

Pretty demoralizing, if true.

[serurier]

Thank you very much , To the guerrilla war, strong fire support is important in twinkling of an eye ?

[archy]

Thank you very much , To the guerrilla war, strong fire support is important in twinkling of an eye ?

Well, for defending force, yes. For the guerrilla, who can choose the time and place for the first shot, the immediate effect, whether sniper's shot or precisely detonated bomb, is all-important. If ideally successful, it can be followed up with an assault, in which the fire effect is also of great importance. If not, fall away and repeat some other ideal time, just as Sun Tzu directs.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

. . . the cable-operated charging handle of which frequently frayed until it broke through at the worst possible time . .

And when it broke, what did your elbow hit? Nothing like catching a radio knob in the funny bone at 0200 on a frosty November morning.

[serurier]

Yes , I agree you .

[archy]

And when it broke, what did your elbow hit? Nothing like catching a radio knob in the funny bone at 0200 on a frosty November morning.

Getting the CVC helmet commo cord wrapped around your neck when you'd spun the cupola a couple of times was another real fun possibility, especially if it caught on the little traversing handwheel.

[fourdeuce82d]

for the purposes used in Iraq, a set of 4 Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launchers

You have a sick and twisted mind.

~40 rds/sec downrange?

"Hello RPG Boy. Goodbye RPG Boy."

Hello charred nibblets of smoking meat.

Works for me.

[archy]

You have a sick and twisted mind.

Flattery will get you nowhere. There's also a fella in Arizona with a 7,62mm minigun in one of the .50 positions on his M55 mount.

~40 rds/sec downrange?

"Hello RPG Boy. Goodbye RPG Boy."

Hello charred nibblets of smoking meat.

Works for me.

That's one way to go. Think of a two vehicle team, one with quad Mk 19s, with HEDP in the top two guns in the event someone naughty takes cover behind a wall or vehicle. And with *bouncing betty* 40mm rounds in the bottom two, should they be on the reverse of a hill or knoll, or egress across an open area.

Then for the other vehicle, instead of four Mk 19s, mount 4 paired 5,56mm M249 SAWS, for eight guns total- like the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters of the Battle of Britain, which used 8-gun setups to chainsaw German fighters to splinters from up close. You'd have to develop a right-hand feed top cover and bolt for the guns, not too difficult, or the South African 5,56mm M77 could be used. Works out to around 6000 rounds per minute, or 100 per second...on slow rate. Wide open would work out to around 8000 RPM....

[historian1944]

A LAV-III with a turret cannot carry a full 9 man squad, or else we would have bought it. The swim requirement was dropped because it was incompatible with the changes we required due to the sometimes mutually exclusive and competing performance parameters in the ORD.

Since the beginning of the program I have argued against the current ammo can configuration, to no avail. Putting a 7.62 machinegun on the vehicle would further degrade the capabilities you are already saying are inadequate to do the task. M240s shoot at a much faster rate than the M2 does, so the ammo change problem doesn't go away.

We had a battalion of Strykers here on Balad for a few months, clearing out the perimeter. They found a lot of arms caches, and attacked quite a few people intent on placing explosives on the MSRs and ASRs. It's not the perfect vehicle for the job in all respects, but it is getting the job done, as this article shows, with a minimum loss of life of crew.

[historian1944]

A LAV-III with a turret cannot carry a full 9 man squad, or else we would have bought it. The swim requirement was dropped because it was incompatible with the changes we required due to the sometimes mutually exclusive and competing performance parameters in the ORD.

Since the beginning of the program I have argued against the current ammo can configuration, to no avail. Putting a 7.62 machinegun on the vehicle would further degrade the capabilities you are already saying are inadequate to do the task. M240s shoot at a much faster rate than the M2 does, so the ammo change problem doesn't go away.

We had a battalion of Strykers here on Balad for a few months, clearing out the perimeter. They found a lot of arms caches, and attacked quite a few people intent on placing explosives on the MSRs and ASRs. It's not the perfect vehicle for the job in all respects, but it is getting the job done, as this article shows, with a minimum loss of life of crew.

[Matthew James]

The info at 14 is basic armor stuff; I'm glad to see the infantry boys are picking it up.

I'm not familiar with the tank/trailer combo, although the concept looks interesting.

Remember what Patton said: You can't put too many machine guns on an armored vehicle!

[Travis McGee]

#50: "Probably kinda hard on the driver's ears unless he buttons up his hatch."

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!

[archy]

#50: "Probably kinda hard on the driver's ears unless he buttons up his hatch." ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!
I have a pal in Texas who has a quad .50 and the guns to go with it. If you have any doubts as to the ear-splitting noise involved, even when wearing ear protectors AND one of the old hardshell tanker's CVC helmets, a hands-on familiarization might be arranged. 'T'aint funny, McGee!, notes archy, former tank gunner now deaf on the right side.

[Travis McGee]

Didn't David Stirling's little band of misfits use American jeeps equipped with quad 50s in North Africa? Or was it only single 50s?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The jeeps were heavily armed with combinations of both Browning and Vickers K machine guns. The ex-aircraft Vickers weapons were generally mounted in pairs and a total of up to five machine guns were carried on some vehicles. The effectiveness of this armament firing a mix of ball, armour-piercing and tracer shells can be judged from one assault on an airfield where 12 aircraft were destroyed in a five minute raid. With all guns blazing a single SAS jeep could deliver an impressive 5000 rounds per minute!

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[Travis McGee]

Thanks! Love that picture. God Bless Mr. Stirling, where ever he is. ^^

[serurier]

This photo is UK army in WWII ?

[archy]

Didn't David Stirling's little band of misfits use American jeeps equipped with quad 50s in North Africa? Or was it only single 50s?

Stirling's SAS used their jeeps primarily as long-distance personnel carriers initially, utilizing the grenade-sized *Lewis bomb* they developed [both explosive AND thermite incendiary] to destroy multiples of German aircraft on the ground at their airfields. When the Germans were forced to staff their rear-area airfields with ground defence forces, they followed up those stealth raids with brute force, smashing through gates with their jeeps using multiple-mount Vickers .303 MGs taken from obsolete bomber turrets, with a few scrounged .50 aircraft guns scrounged here and there. But the multiple Vickers *K-guns* were their real tools.

The raiding unit that made best use of the jeep as weapon as much as transport was the lesser-known raiders of *Popski's Private Army,* also operating in the British Eighth Army advance areas, both as raiders and intelligence-gatherers. Indeed, General Sir Bernard Montgomery described the unit of less than a hundred men as *the most effective intelligence-gathering unit of the war....*

PPA used the jeep, usually with a .50 and .30 Browning, sometimes with a British Bren or captured paired German MG34s or 42s facing rearward as *getaway guns,* though Italian weapons, a former Messerschmitt aircraft 20mm autocannon and even a flamethrower were among the hardware adapted to their jeeps. Occasionally encountering a German or Italian armoured car or light tank at intersecting route roadblocks, American bazookas were one answer, but the .50 Brownings were said to be quite capable as well, and more certain at night-though the mad Irishman with the flamethrower must have gotten their attention.

Popski's personal jeep, it should be noted, mounted a pair of .50 Brownings, and they were the M2 heavy barreled model, not the lighter barrel aircraft guns that couldn't stand up to sustained bursts in ground fire use.

After the fighting in the Western Desert was concluded, Popski's band relocated operations to Italy, where they worked their way behind the German lines again, further assisting both the British forces and Pattons with route teconnaisance and expectations as to German resistance in the villages and towns they were entering. And so PPA continued, all the way to Venice, thence on to Vienna, where they met up with occupying Russian forces, and things took an interesting turn of events- but though the Soviet forces may have trifled with some Brits, they found that the Gurkhas and PPA were a bad choice for such games.