« Bravado | Main | Former UK MP: 'This War on Terrorism is Bogus' - reference companion »

September 06, 2003

'You want me to put a sign on it in fifty languages, 'I am a troop carrier, not a tank. Please don't shoot me?' '

Newsweek is reporting that the Army's new Stryker troop carriers have a rather serious problem: The German subcontrator that General Dynamics used to make ceramic tiles (which are supposed to protect the lightweight steel and aluminum skin of the Stryker) didn't always make them according to specs, resulting in some batches of tiles that fail to protect either the vehicle or - more importantly - the troops inside.

The bad tiles are weak enough that they leave the Stryker vulnerable to attacks from RPGs or machine gun fire - both of which are frequently used by Iraqis attacking the US forces.

Worse still: the Army has known it might have a problem since February, but has kept quiet about it. An Army memo sent yesterday to the head of the Stryker program, and obtained by NEWSWEEK, reports: "Evidently this issue was first raised in February 2003. Am unsure how this issue escaped public scrutiny for six months." Not even Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was told, NEWSWEEK has learned. “Understand that ARSTAF [Army Staff] have been told to treat this issue as if it were ‘classified’,” says the memo, which is addressed to Lt. Gen. John Riggs, the head of the Stryker program.

The Stryker has been "advertised as the first fruit of the Army’s plan to transform itself into a lighter, go-anywhere-fast force," but the program has been controversial from the start.

Many of the Army’s most senior officers privately consider the Stryker far too large—it’s as big as a school bus—and far too vulnerable either in open combat or in the confined spaces of urban warfare. (Even with its ceramic cladding, certain spots on the Stryker remain unprotected against an accurately aimed RPG or even rifle fire.)

The Army's contract with General Dynamics is for 2100 vehicles of which more than 600 have been delivered. A study of the database related to the making of the vehicles shows that “'[a]ll Strykers in combat brigades and at test sites—more than 600 vehicles—are equipped with some [potentially faulty] armor panels' and will need retesting, says the memo to Riggs."

The only sure remedy will be to replace all of the bad tiles, but in the meantime, "the emergency fix that the Army has decided for the Strykers bound for Iraq is to glue a sheet of ultrahard steel behind each faulty tile." The downside to this remedy is that the Strykers - which are supposed to be lightweight and fast - will be made that much heavier by the added steel plates.

I'm not exactly sure why, but for some reason, the use of a foreign subcontractor strikes me as a less-than-wise move, though I'm sure it's SOP in the defense industry.

What's even more troublesome, though, is that a subcontractor - regardless of where they're located - would decide to disregard the specifications of the equipment that they're making and change the forumula/recipe apparently on their own initiative, and without regard for the effect it has on the safety and useability of the final product.

It never ceases to amaze me how frequently we hear about problems with equipment that our men and women - who are already risking their lives for this country - are depending on to protect them. Defense contractor scandals are pretty mush standard operating procedure for Washington, but why anyone accepts the status quo is beyond me.

Posted by thorswitch at September 6, 2003 11:04 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.differentstrings.info/mt/mt-tb-ds.cgi/1131

Comments

Posted by: rich at September 8, 2003 01:55 PM