Stryker mobile gun systems enter service in Iraq

The Stryker vehicle system is designed to be a troop transport that's as deadly as a tank, as swift as a Humvee and highly mobile for quick deployment into combat. There are ten planned variations. The Mobile Gun System's firepower includes a turret-mounted 105 mm cannon, a mounted M-240C machine gun and a pedestal-mounted M-2.50 caliber machine gun for the vehicle commander. The cannon can blast holes through reinforced concrete walls creating a breach point for infantry, and destroy bunkers and machine-gun nests that typically pin down infantry squads and platoons. The cannon also fires canister rounds, which send out a spray of titanium balls, similar to the pellets from a shotgun, which can impact several targets at once. The Mobile Gun System also features the Ammunition Handling System, an ammo-loading device for the 105 mm cannon. With the ammo system, several types of rounds can be loaded in advance, then the ammunition types are displayed on the cannon operator's central control panel monitor. Depending on the mission, the operator can select which ammunition to use and the Ammunition Handling System automatically loads the cannon.

A fresh Army Stryker brigade recently entered Iraq armed with the Mobile Gun System.

The MGS has a stabilized, direct-fire 105mm cannon mounted atop a Stryker vehicle for destroying hard targets such as bunkers and barricaded enemy positions.

The 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., is the first these fast-moving units to deploy with the new system.

The unit had a chance to test-fire the new MGS Strykers in Kuwait before crossing into Iraq.

The MGS is equipped with a digital targeting system that calculates effects of wind and barometric pressure on the 105mm rounds to improve their accuracy.

Read the rest at Army Times

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