Army Needs Better Guns On Its Stryker Fighting Vehicles In Europe Fast (From Forbes)

In 2013 the U.S. Army brought home the last of its Abrams and Bradley tracked armored vehicles from Europe.  It probably wasn’t a total coincidence that less than a year later, Russia began its campaign to dismember Ukraine.  So now the Army finds its last front-line combat unit near Eastern Europe, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, in need of more firepower fast.  The regiment’s Stryker fighting vehicles are well-protected, agile and networked, but they need a bigger gun to defeat the kind of threats they might be facing from the east.  The Army’s solution is to equip 81 Strykers with a lethal 30 mm. cannon that can sustain high rates of fire using air-burst and armor-piercing rounds.  But U.S. troops can’t wait for this  initiative to wend its way down the usual path that weapons acquisitions follow.  Congress needs to add about $300 million to the Army’s budget this year to put the up-gunned Strykers on a fast track.  If they get to Europe fast enough, that might help deter Russia from further military adventures in the east.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.