FORT LEWIS – After logging thousands of miles during their first two years in Iraq, the Army’s Stryker vehicles are getting an overhaul before being sent back.
The eight-wheeled armored vehicles are being worked on by mechanics from General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., which made the Strykers and has a $69 million Army contract to restore them. Maintenance is taking place at Fort Lewis and at a company yard in Auburn.
The Strykers arrived home by ship in October. They were used for a year in Iraq by the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, then for another year with their successors from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. Average use by the fleet of 285 vehicles was more than 20,000 miles, officials said.
Maj. Robert Berg, who heads the Stryker program at Fort Lewis, said the vehicles held up well.
“Overall, they’re a lot better off than I thought they’d be,” said Berg, who spent several months in 2004 working on the vehicles in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade.
The Strykers’ addition to the Army in 2002 was criticized by some who said that, at $2 million each, they were too expensive, too heavy and inferior to other vehicles.
However, they have been praised by generals and young privates alike for their speed, maneuverability and communications systems, as well as the protection they provide from improvised explosive devices, a common weapon used by the insurgency in Iraq.
The most heavily damaged vehicles remain overseas at General Dynamics’ repair facility in Qatar. About 50 company mechanics also traveled to Iraq with the Stryker brigades, performing routine maintenance and repairs.
In Washington, about three weeks will be spent on each Stryker, replacing damaged armor, drive trains, transmissions and all the 350-pound tires.
Each vehicle’s remote weapons station – which allows gunners to see in the dark and fire from inside – will be shipped to Norway, where manufacturer Kongsberg Protech is installing upgraded electronics, project manager John Ball said.
About 185 are to be finished by the end of June, when the 3rd Brigade will take a mix of refurbished and new Strykers back to Iraq. The remaining Strykers are to be finished by Sept. 30.
Soldiers have also made their own improvements to the Strykers, including small refrigerators, coffee pots and video-game systems.
“They were literally living in these vehicles,” Ball said.
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