Com-Central.net

Hi All:

Take a look at the cover illustration of a Stryker for the upcoming Osprey book. It sure does not seem right to me.

s49.photobucket.com/al...769304.jpg

The slat is too far off the hull. The DVE (camera) is in front of the driver, the two cylinders behind the driver do not seem correct, and I am not so sure about the exhaust either.

I have seen a few pics of pre-production vehicles and they had the camera here. I assume this is a pre-production Stryker. If so, it is disappointing that they chose to show a pre-production truck on the cover. It is not representative at all of the 1,500 Strykers that have been delivered so far.

Could it be a version that saw limited service before being upgraded? The Concord book shows Strykers from 3/2 in it's initial deployment to Iraq, and there are none that look like this.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Bob

I thought I attached a photo, but it is just a link. Here is the photo, but maybe the link shows a larger version.

STRYKER with Slat Armour In Iraq, VERY different arrangement to the one above................

www.strategypage.com/g...052181.asp

Regards,

BUG

Hi Bob! Hi Folks!

Possible a manufactor's mock up of an early bar armor layout?

Check out the following photos at the bottom of this link:

www.globalsecurity.org...v-pics.htm

The round things:

The top left one (MV08J) , left side of a vehicle, you can see one of the two round items behind the driver's hatch. Same thing on the vehicle facing the camera with the guy in the gunner's hatch with the short sleave shirt.

Then look at the one with the troops in winter gear. Vehicle B-22 of the 172d BCT. The driver's hatch is closed and the area behind the hatch is covered over.

My guess is that a cover was added to protect those round items from troops stepping on and damaging them.

The camera:

Not sure, but could that be a closed camera hatch in front of the driver's position in that photo with the gunner with the short sleaves?

The exhaust and the slat distance off the hull.

Near the bottom, vehicle A31 overhead view. The exhaust looks like the same lay out to me. At the bottom is a photo of two Strykers (front right side view) with what looks like some type of a protective (?) cover over the grill.

As for the distance the slats are off the hull....not sure there.
It might be an optical illusion which in part is being cause by service vehicles being loading down with all kinds of gear while that vehicle on the Osprey cover is clean. It even looks like it might not have the rear view minors and headlight assembles.

My guess is we are looking a clean version of a production vehicle from the first block build with possible the very first slat cage layout.

As for how many and how much service the first block build saw, we need Mr. Hunnicutt to do another book detailing the numbers in each build and the mods added during each follow on build.

I would bet that by the time the Stryker retires, there will be as many versions/mods as the Sherman tank had.
Sgt, Scouts out!



Sgt, Scouts Out!

Yup! I think Mr Lingle has it there, there isn't all that much difference in the cage distances and most of the layout bwteen the Osprey book and the in-service ones, it's the troop gear strapped to the outside that makes appearances seem different...............

My re-assessed view for what its worth.............:wink:

By the way that's the third version of mr Lingle's report, I keep on coming back to see how you modified it this time!

Regards,

BUG

Actually, one big difference between the cover photo and in-service vehicles is the cover photo slat cage appears to be the identical on the left and right side! In-service vehicles have a drop-down cage section attached to the side hatch, making the left side cage considerably different than the right side.

Hi Bug! Hi Folks!

- buglerbilly

By the way that's the third version of mr Lingle's report, I keep on coming back to see how you modified it this time!
Regards,

Sorry about the versions.

I started out thinking off the top of my head with the first post. After I logged out, I went surfing and found that group of photos.

Then I tried to link the different photos with the points that Bob had and couldn't get it to work right. Ended up editing my post about seven times or so.

Sgt, Scouts Out!

I think that website has a mixture of pre-production vehicles and production vehicles. I agree that photo w/ the short sleeve guy has the DVE in front of the driver's hatch. However, all production vehicles I am aware of had it moved to the top center of the front hull as shown here in my photo:



Also, the two round things behind the driver hatch look like this:



One is the driver's air vent and the other is the overpressure system for the NBC system, but I forget which is what.

Anyway, I'll bet the cover vehicle is a limited production vehicle and so technically it will be okay, but when you have three thousand vehicles produced I would think the ICV version that is in use with 99% of those produced would be the one illustrated. People would get the impression this one is common when it is very rare if not nonexistent.

Bob