January 11, 2006: The U.S. Army's new Stryker wheeled armored vehicle has been in Iraq for over two years now. The first Stryker brigade left its 299 Stryker vehicles in Iraq, when the troops finished their one year tour. Now, after two years, those vehicles are being brought home and refurbished. Seven percent of the vehicles got banged up pretty bad, mostly by roadside bombs. These had to be rebuilt.

Those 299 Strkyers averaged about 24,000 kilometers a year. Some put in close to 110,000 kilometers. Military wheeled vehicles operating in that part of the world are in need of refurbishment after about 50,000 kilometers. The refurbishment for the Strykers involves a new set of tires, new drive train and transmission. Any other equipment that got banged up or worn out will be repaired or replaced. Vehicles are repainted as needed. The electronics in each vehicle will be upgraded. The Strykers are the first of a new generation of "digital" vehicles. That means networking, computers and the ability to exchange digital data with other vehicles and troops equipped with wireless networking gear. In effect, a battlefield Internet. This stuff survived remarkably well in Iraq, despite the heat, dust, vibration and heavy use by the troops. The entire refurbishment process takes about twenty days per vehicle.

This was the first combat experience for the Strykers, and they performed quite well. Like most new military vehicles, they received a lot of criticism for being too expensive, too fragile, too heavy, too big and unsuited to the task. But the troops who used the Strykers liked them, and the vehicles proved to be more effective than any alternatives (more heavily armored M-2 Bradley's, or armored hummers.)