MOSUL, Iraq -For soldiers inside the U.S. Army's newest troop transport vehicle, the armored combat Stryker rides like a cross-town bus as it sways softly atop its rubber tires, its brakes hissing quietly.
Some 300 Strykers are patrolling northern Iraq after their September 2003 introduction.
Rank-and-file soldiers hailed the Stryker during recent patrols in Mosul as faster, quieter and safer than other combat vehicles.
We've been hit with (roadside bombs) and rocket-propelled grenades several times. We have taken direct machine-gun fire
said Spc. George May of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis, Wash. The Stryker has saved everyone's lives at least once. It's perfect for what we're doing which is urban warfare.
Strykers are designed to carry troops on patrols and into combat. While the boxy Strykers somewhat resemble tanks, they generally lack heavy cannons and are propelled by wheels instead of tracks.
In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city with more than 2 million people, the Strykers race along main streets and creep quietly through winding back alleys, searching for insurgents who bury artillery shells and mines in roadsides and target the vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades.
Soldiers say the Stryker is quieter, allowing them to sneak up on the enemy. And they say its partially jerry-rigged armor guards them better than Humvees.
Unlike the tank-like, tracked personnel carriers that predominate across the rest of Iraq, the four wheels on either side of the 19-ton Stryker give it speed, stealth and mobility that allow it to outmaneuver insurgents, officers say.
For what we're doing I think the Stryker is excellent
said May, a 27-year-old native of Upper Dublin, Pa.
An Army report from the Center for Army Lessons Learned found the vehicle bogs down in mud, and the engine strains under 5,000-pound armor added by the Army.
The metal mesh armor, designed to deflect rocket-propelled grenades and large shrapnel from improvised bombs, has earned it a nickname: the bird cage.
The report also said the armor's extra weight has caused problems with the automatic tire pressure system, requiring crews to check the tires three times a day.
The Army should not put inadequately tested equipment in the field
as it creates a false impression that the troops are properly equipped to fight in combat
said Eric Miller, who investigates defense issues for the oversight group.
In Iraq, infantrymen and officers bridled at the report, saying many of the problems have been fixed and insisting the Stryker's speed outweighs any deficiencies.
The soldiers' duties in Mosul center on countering the militants' favored attack tactics: suicide car bombings, roadside remote-controlled explosives and anti-tank mines wrapped in garbage bags and left along roads.
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