Army's New Tactic: A Silent, Deadly Power

W I T H  T H E  S T R Y K E R  B R I G A D E,  Iraq, Dec. 12, 2004 -- They are large and lethal, spookily quiet and ridiculously fast.

No one heard the 20-ton, eight-wheeled, lightly armored Stryker coming, or heard it drive past on the dirt road at Camp Udari in Kuwait.

That was ABCNEWS' first introduction to just how unique these armored personnel carriers really are, and why the Army has brought almost 300 of the new vehicles to Iraq.

The Army considers both of these qualities to be tactically crucial as it faces off against a new type of enemy in a new kind of war. The Iraqi insurgents setting off improvised explosive devices or firing rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. soldiers tend not to stand and fight a pitched battle. Rather, they hit quickly and move away, sometimes not even staying around long enough to gauge the results of their attacks.

So the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, now known as the Stryker Brigade, have adopted a new method of reacting to attacks: They rush toward the source. Depending on how many vehicles are on patrol, upward of 30 highly trained trained infantrymen may stream out to chase down the insurgents.

Meanwhile, other Strykers stay on the periphery, scanning the fields or buildings with their thermal cameras and covering the troops with a .50 caliber machine gun or Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher.

The tactic is new. The vehicles are new. The brigade is new.

It's all part of the transformation of the Army into what they hope will be a relevant force, with units able to dash to trouble spots anywhere in the world, within 92 hours, and have with them enough firepower to handle things.

Medium-Weight Force to Be Reckoned With

The Army is currently comprised of heavy mechanized divisions like the 3rd Infantry Division, which pummeled its way to Baghdad in historic fashion; or light divisions like the 101st Airborne, which has no armored vehicles, save a few "up-armored" humvees, and very little heavy weaponry. There's nothing in the middle.

At least, not until now. The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Brigade is the first of six such Stryker Brigades already funded and being constructed now, which comprise a true medium-weight force, meaning they're theoretically "light" enough to be flown hundreds of miles, but they're equipped with armor and, eventually, will carry some big guns.

Each brigade is designed as an expeditionary force; that is, they can be sent to the corners of the world and function, and fight, independent of any support for up to three days. They have their own organic artillery units, intelligence units, and sniper units, with more snipers than most Army divisions have. The brigades are also issued their own UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles — drone aircraft used to view a battlefield and send back real-time video so the unit's commanders have a clear idea of what lies before them.

Central to the unit's ability to "See first, act first, act decisively" is a computer system dubbed the FBCB2. There's a screen with a keyboard next to the vehicle commander's seat. It links all the vehicles with each other and the entire command structure, so that a general at division headquarters can see on his 40-inch plasma screen a map showing exactly where every single Stryker is and where every enemy contact is. It's like the observer-mode in a video game, where you can watch it all unfold before you in real time.

Each vehicle also has instant e-mail ability, so the squad leader, for instance, can fire off a request for air support or medical evacuation.

Self-Reliant Technology

As anyone not living in a cabin in the woods knows, with all this technology, things are bound to go wrong. And they do. Stryker computers crash or seize up. The radio communications, always the bane of the soldier in the field, still have problems. But this time, the Army put multiple radio systems in each vehicle, so that there's probably always at least one working.

And the Army went one step further in keeping the units self-reliant as possible: Each vehicle has a trained computer whiz on board, a soldier who can troubleshoot the problems — when he's not actually shooting at trouble, that is. Every soldier has more than one skill — auto mechanic, medic, cook.

Most of the officers say that's what really makes this brigade unique: the quality of the training the soldiers receive. They have unprecedented responsibilities, and the field officers and sergeants are empowered to make command decisions quickly without having to run everything up the chain of command. The officers say that can mean the difference between catching a terrorist in the act or just finding the bomb he was constructing.

This is, in effect, a shake-down cruise, albeit with life or death implications. The Stryker vehicles went from concept to combat in three years — nothing short of miraculous in a military that prefers to test, retest, and test again every system. It normally takes a minimum of eight years for new equipment to make it into the hands of soldiers.

Some Disadvantages

But the Strykers aren't perfect: It was discovered that their armor, even when bolstered with additional ceramic tiles, won't withstand certain kinds of rocket-propelled grenades. So the Army quickly ordered the installation of "slat-armor," which theoretically catches RPGs and causes them to detonate inches away from the vehicle's skin.

Some of the soldiers derisively call the addition "bird cages." But, as one battalion commander put it, "If it saves one guy's life, it's worth it."

The Strykers are heavier than expected now, with the additional armor, and wider. That means they probably can't be airlifted as far, as fast, as the Army projected. A rash of recent reports by the General Accounting Office and the Rand Corp. list other faults, and the main punch of the brigade, a Stryker-mounted 105 mm gun, is still years away from being fielded, if ever.

But since most of the soldiers in Iraq are being killed riding around in unprotected humvees or trucks, the complaints of the critics fall on deaf ears with the nine guys in the back who come and go from their foot patrols in armored comfort.

Pay Off?

Less than a week after the unit arrived in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the new equipment and tactics paid off for the first time. Alpha Company spotted two men in a field doing something suspicious. On their rubber tires, the huge vehicles slipped up close and the soldiers quickly captured the men, who had with them dynamite, mortar rounds, and AK-47 rifles. They were allegedly building another "improvised explosive device" — the sort of booby-trap contraption that has killed and wounded dozens of U.S. troops over the past months.

This is perhaps the most dangerous place in the world for Americans. Yet almost 5,000 young men and women from Fort Lewis, Wash., have arrived here to relieve the weary and deserving troops who've dodged the frequent mortar attacks, RPGs and the baleful glares of the populace for seven or eight months now.

U.S. troops were greeted by cheering throngs of Iraqis during the opening stages of the war, south of Baghdad. But in the Sunni Triangle, you're more likely to get a thumbs-down gesture than a wave.

The people in this area had a benefactor in Saddam Hussein, and it's apparent, on the surface at least, that they deeply resent the U.S. Army's presence.

The Stryker Brigade's work in Iraq has only just begun. There are operations in the works that will tax the new equipment, the new technologies and certainly the new, and mostly very young, soldiers. It has already cost three young men their lives, when a Stryker slid sideways down one of the ubiquitous canals in this area and turned over. The three soldiers drowned. There will, we all fear, be more young people not going home.

That is the part of war that is never new. And so far, no technology yet invented can prevent it.

ABCNEWS' Don Dahler and Mike Gudgell are embedded with the Stryker Brigade.