U.S. Army personnel conducted their first test with a Stryker combat vehicle equipped with a 30mm cannon ahead of future planned upgrades.
The combat vehicle was tested at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Program officials say the demonstration was intended to verify its combat abilities and make future determinations on the vehicle’s armament.
“We’re not going to put a 30 mm cannon on every Stryker; it’s a selection of them,” Col. Glenn Dean said. “Part of the decision on how many for the future will depend on what 2nd Cavalry Regiment has to say on what works or what doesn’t work, or if we have enough or too many.”
The test comes ahead of a scheduled delivery of the Stryker to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany.
“The purpose there is to prove out our gunnery training plan that will support fielding next year,” Dean explained at the International Armored Vehicles conference. “We’ll have a number of crews come over, and they’ll get to operate and drive the vehicle.”
The Army received its first cannon-equipped Stryker prototype, nicknamed the Dragoon, in October 2016. The vehicle was developed in response to Russia’s 2015 invasion of Ukraine to close a ground vehicle capability gap, according to service leaders.
The Army began the acquisition process of the vehicles in fall 2015, and plans to field the first 83 Dragoons by the end of Fiscal 2018.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense
