Stryker in Detail Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

When the Army's mission shifted from defending the line in Europe to more fluid operations worldwide, they reconsidered the LAV, only to have Congress choose the HUMVEE to meet their mobility needs. In Desert Storm, the Rangers borrowed a few LAVs from the Marines and found they didn't quite meet their needs.

By the turn of the century, the Army had embraced the need to have some of its forces capable of rapid deployment into remote areas where the transport of the M1 and M2 would be difficult and maintenance on those same vehicles would be nearly non-existent. A trade show was hosted to look over the available wheeled combat vehicles to understand the state of the art and the issues in adopting such a capability into US Army doctrine. A source selection followed and the team of General Motors/Canada and General Dynamics Land Systems (makers of the M1 Abrams) was selected to tailor the GM-designed vehicle to meet US Army requirements. The vehicle family was named for Medal of Honor recipient PFC Stuart Stryker. The M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV) is designed to carry a crew of two and a squad of nine.

I don't know about you, but when the first Stryker kit was released, it was my first opportunity to look this vehicle over, albeit in scale. While I didn't have any problems with building the model, I was rather stunned about how little I recognized in terms of equipment on the exterior of the vehicle. But then again, I wore the uniform while the M113 was still the Army's primary battlefield transport.

I wondered who would be the first to market with a Stryker reference title, and the winner was also my first choice - Wings and Wheels Publications. They get their cameras into a variety of places that would please the AMS modeler as well as reveal details that the more advanced aviation analyst/historian would really appreciate.

So having acquired this title, I was equally pleased with the depth, breadth, and quality of the color photography, but I was blown away with the level of detail in the narrative and captions. If you need to do some catch-up learning on the Stryker as I did, this will rather quickly bring you up to speed on the sensors, computers, communications, armament, etc., that are used in this family of vehicles. This is only Part One, and it covers:

• M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV)
• M1126 ICV w/Mk.19 Grenade Launcher
• M1127 Reconnaissance Vehicle
• M1130 Command Vehicle (CV)
• M1130 CV Tactical Air Ccontrol Party (TACP)
• M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicle (ESV)
• M1132 ESV w/Lightweight Mine Roller
• M1132 ESV w/Angled Mine Plow
• M1132 ESV w/Straight Obstacle Blade

If you want only one detailed photo reference on the Stryker series, get this one. You will not be disappointed. This title is definitely recommended! Bring on those new Stryker kits!