Re: The new US Army APC the "Stinger"

>Subject: Re: The new US Army APC the "Stinger"

>I assume that this vehicle will carry a full squad and may result in 
>restoring
>the US Inf. Company to its previous strength.

The version the US is buying as a personnel carrier will carry 11
troops, 2
 crew and 9 infantry.  It has a remote gun mount.  

The Canadian army is buying a bunch of the same basic vehicle, but ours
are
being bought with the 25mm chaingun turret.  This one will have a crew
of 3
and a regular infantry capacity of 7 troops, IIRC.

>
>By the way,  since you seem to know, where is the US Army's LAV?  Since
it
>seems as if you are an expert on the Stryker perhaps you could give us 
>some of
>the details on the program like when it started and what are the
vehicle 
>specifications.

Didn't the the US buy, a bunch of the LAV-25 type vehicles for the
National
Guard, but versions without turrets? 

The LAV system has been also bought by Australia and Saudi Arabia. 
Canada
bought a bunch also, in several versions.  Australia and New Zealand are
buying the new version also.

The current vehicle is the 3rd generation of the LAV.  The second
version
formed the basis of the current Canadian recce vehicle (which has the
25mm
Chaingun turret, a surveilance system on an extendable mast and a
dismountable surveilance system attached to the vehicle with a long
umbilical cable, etc.)	A bunch of these went to Afghanistan with the
PPCLI.

The newest version is bigger and heavier, but has substantially improved
protection, better suspension, etc.  It doesn't have the same
cross-country
mobility as a good tracked vehicle, but comes reasonably close, and it
is a
LOT lighter...

>
>The basic question I still have is what are advantages that the this
APC
>at $2 million per copy compared to a LAV25 which is now 15 years
>old and a fraction of the cost. If 200 are lost in combat is there
enough
>in reserve to replace them or do we strip the units to the rear.

better armour
better electronic systems
better suspension
faster
etc etc etc.

They've taken 20 years of experience with the original LAV system and
built
in a lot of improvements.

I'm sure there mission creep problems also, but the newer vehicle is
better
than the older one in a lot of ways.

"The LAV III is a full-time four-wheel drive, selective eight-wheel
drive,
armored vehicle weighing approximately 19 tons. It can attain speeds of
62
mph on the highway and has a maximum range of 312 miles. The basic
infantry
carrier vehicle (ICV) has armor that protects the two-man crew and nine
on-board soldiers from machine gun bullets, mortar and artillery
fragments.
The LAV III ICV variant includes configurations such as the
reconnaissance,
anti-tank guided missile, and medical evacuation vehicles, as well as
carriers for mortars, engineer squads, command groups, reconnaissance
and
fire support teams. The Mobile Gun System variant consists of a General
Dynamics Land Systems 105mm cannon mounted in a low-profile turret
integrated on the General Motors LAV III chassis."  

If you're interested, take a look at:

http://www.gm-defense.com/products.asp?ProductID=16

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca