The Wargamer

RAPIDITY IS THE ESSENCE OF WAR

Long ago, Sun Tzu recognized the importance of speed and mobility as a key element toward achieving victory in battle. Fast forward 2,500 years, and one will hear Sun Tzu's principle of war echoing loudly in the halls of the Pentagon, but more specifically, throughout the United States Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), home of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

Built around the Stryker family of eight-wheeled, all wheel drive (AWD) armored combat vehicles (ACVs), produced by General Dynamics Combat Systems, and named in honor of Pfc. Stuart S. Stryker and Spc. Robert F. Stryker, two American servicemen killed in action and both posthumous recipients of the Medal of Honor, the Army's Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) is designed as a lethal, agile and mobile interim force, filling the gap between early-entry forces and heavier post-intervention outfits. With a wide range of flexible assets, the Stryker brigades are poised to dominate combat in the 21st Century.

On June 23, 1999, General Eric Ken Shinseki, the 34th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, identified the core challenge facing America's modern armed forces:

"We must provide early entry forces that can operate jointly, without access to fixed forward bases, but we still need the power to slug it out and win decisively. Today, our heavy forces are too heavy and our light forces lack staying power. We will address those mismatches."

The rise of global instability in the wake of the post-Cold War world, together with a reduction in the number of U.S. forces deployed abroad, compromised the Army's ability to respond rapidly to foreign crisis. Accordingly, the Army Strategic Planning Guidance (ASPG) established particular requirements for the Army of the 21st Century so that it might become more strategically responsive to the demands of our brave new world.

Although developed for employment in all operational environments against all projected future threats, the Stryker brigades are optimized for global use in small-scale contingency operations located in complex and/or urban terrain. In future conflicts, Stryker brigades will confront moderate level threats in conventional and asymmetric based warfare. Deploying rapidly, executing early entry, and conducting effective combat operations immediately upon arrival to prevent, contain, stabilize, or resolve a conflagration; the Army's new brigades are capable of commitment across the full spectrum of conflict.