[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

At the recent annual 2+2 dialogue conducted between the Indian Ministers of External Affairs and Defence and the US Secretaries of State and Defense, both countries have agreed to ‘co-produce’ the Stryker among other things.

One of the variants of the Stryker is the M1128 MGS (Mobile Gun system) Stryker(although it is in the process of being phased out). It basically is a Stryker with a 105mm gun that is used on the Abrams MBT. I wonder if this is the variant that has been offered, considering India already has a few homegrown APCs undergoing trials. However, the main role of the M1128 Stryker is to support the Infantry- sort of like a heavy, hard hitting IFV.







The M1128 has a crew of three, the main gun works against most threats including light and medium-armored vehicles, and uses a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun, plus smoke grenade launchers. A single fuel tank is enough to cover a distance of 528 km (330 miles) on a good road while achieving a maximum speed of 96 km/h (60 mph).

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

One of the variants of the Stryker is the M1128 MGS (Mobile Gun system) Stryker(although it is in the process of being phased out). It basically is a Stryker with a 105mm gun that is used on the Abrams MBT. I wonder if this is the variant that has been offered, considering India already has a few homegrown APCs undergoing trials. However, the main role of the M1128 Stryker is to support the Infantry- sort of like a heavy, hard hitting IFV.

The M1128 has a crew of three, the main gun works against most threats including light and medium-armored vehicles, and uses a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun, plus smoke grenade launchers. A single fuel tank is enough to cover a distance of 528 km (330 miles) on a good road while achieving a maximum speed of 96 km/h (60 mph).

This seems to make sense given the Indian Army's urgent requirement for a light tank in the LAC - not ideal but some sort of stop-gap arrangement till the indigenous light tank is in operation. Another possibility is to augment the existing indigenous options which may take time to enter mass production (though the Tata Kestrels are already on order).

[itwasntme]

Already raising a controversy:
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/india-...ssive-setback/

[ads11]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Already raising a controversy:
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/india-...ssive-setback/

Hoo boy, that was a zesty article with barely concealed contempt for the NATO block and more than apparent Russian bias. Histrionics aside I do concur that it's an odd procurement decision and isn't going to be doing any favours to the Indian private sector when it comes to mulling whether to develop any military hardware indigenously. It's all well and good buying foreign for those areas that aren't currently available or where there's a time pressure that negates waiting for a home brew solution. But for an IFV? Really baffling considering there already is Some long standing expertise with BMP production and the long standing development effort with the Kestrel.

Now the counter point to this is if the Kestrel or other domestic IFVs were essentially lemons, in which case there's a reticence on the part of the establishment to publicly admit as much (it'll just join the list of Arjun+Tejas etc in being a bit of a punching bag about compromised domestic platform development programmes). Still, surely there was a better way of doing that than this Stryker deal.

It's been a while since Indian procurement have done something characteristically baffling so really this is just a return to normality in that regard.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

This seems to make sense given the Indian Army's urgent requirement for a light tank in the LAC - not ideal but some sort of stop-gap arrangement till the indigenous light tank is in operation.

My thoughts exactly. With the Light Tank requirement of the Indian Army(dubbed Project Zorawar) delayed further, and the acquisition of Sprut-SD light tanks not happening, the M1128 MGS Stryker probably is the best stop gap solution for the Army's light tank requirement(though it was not the primary role it was designed for).

However, there have been issues with the MGS that has caused the US Army to phase them out slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcdH0KcICYQ

[dragracer567]

Strykers set to undergo trials in Ladakh

Recent reports seem to indicate that the Indian Army is indeed going ahead with the Stryker and it doesn't seem like we are getting the light tank version as speculated earlier.

According to the IDRW (which I'd admit might not be a particularly reliable source), the Army seems to favour the Stryker over the indigenous Tata WhAP. According to The Print, the Army sources view them as different products that serve different purposes.

Nevertheless, the Strykers are set to undergo trials in Ladakh but it seems like a done deal as it has come up multiple times during NSA summits between the US and India while it has also been confirmed that local production is on the cards as well which means this isn't a small one-off order.

While I'm certainly for importing what we can't make in-house or plugging critical gaps, I'm unable to find a rational explanation as to why we would bring in a foreign vendor for a product for which a fairly good indigenous alternative is available. The only reason I can think of is political! It is particularly disheartening because the Army despite being the most critical force and the one most susceptible to having reliable supply of arms and munitions is still dependent on foreign OEMs. Now, we are back to using guns from foreign vendors (AK-203s and Sig 716s) and we operate more T-90s than the Russians while the Arjun tank has disappeared into oblivion.