I just posted a few pics of Strykers in the previous post and it led me to ask. How would we evaluate them? What are the stars, the duds, the victims of bad tactics etc...?
Under victims of bad tactics I think EVERY vehicle falls under this umbrella.
Duds?
I think we knew what vehicles would suffer badly in a high intensity conflict before they got sent over.
My belief in Mobile Gun Systems is gone. I think the concept is as dead as disco. If you place a heavy gun on a vehicle other than a tank then its gonna take hits it wasn't designed for. Perhaps this is also an issue of tactics but you can't provide fire support for infantry without getting into weapons range and anything short of tank armor means you won't stay in that fight for long.
Polaris light vehicles seem to be popular as hell. I still lack faith in them. They're quick. They're relatively quiet. But you will get smashed once detected. Another instance of taking a low intensity warfare vehicle and trying to fit the box of high intensity combat.
Air Defense Vehicles. Absolutely necessary! BUT! They appear to be vulnerable as hell. Don't know a thing about how they're used but the radar on one vehicle, missiles on another seem to be asking to be detected and neutralized. Missiles are bigger so you can't shrink this thing down and the same applies to radars that have distance. How this one gets solved is beyond me but these rigs will be the first targeted in a big fight so that all those loitering munitions can kill everything else on the battlefield.
IFVs are a confusing beast. The trend in the West is that they're getting bigger and we've seen an upgraded Bradley shrug off a hit from a Russian tank round. The problem isn't direct fire, the problem is those damn drones. The problem is avoiding detection in the first place. Big IFVs are easy to spot. I mean hell they're as big as a school bus riding around a battlefield!
The flip side is that Russian IFVs are much smaller and much lighter armored. They've been getting crushed too. The answer? I have no idea.
My biggest surprise is that the MRAPs have been performing in my opinion remarkably well. They've done their main job of defeating mines but have flexed into the APC role well and protected their crews from direct fire remarkably well.
What are your stars, duds and surprises of this thing in the armored vehicle realm?
