Image Source: Photo: youtube.com
American-made Stryker combat vehicles continue to get into various road accidents during operation on the territory of European NATO countries. One of them happened in Germany.According to "RG: Russian weapons", for some reason, the M-SHORAD self-propelled air defense installation, which only recently began to enter the troops, crashed into the right side of the MaxxPro armored car.
As a result, the front axle of the two-axle special vehicle was completely torn off, the rear right wheel was turned out, and the body was damaged. The mobile (8x8) air defense system also has serious damage that permanently disabled it. There is no data yet on how much the crew members suffered.
MaxxPro were created for operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, belong to the so-called MRAPs with an increased level of protection against mines and land mines. Now they serve not only in the US army, but also transferred to more than two dozen countries, including Ukraine. In the latter, they are criticized a lot for poor cross-country ability, but, as it turns out, incidents with them can happen on good roads in an absolutely peaceful environment.
The weight is about 14,000 kg. The 330-horsepower engine is capable of accelerating an armored car along the highway up to 105 km/h. However, stability and handling at high speeds leave much to be desired.
The American military, which for a long time had not been engaged in means of protection against threats from the air for the ground forces, decided not to deny themselves anything when creating a rocket-gun M-SHORAD on the Stryker chassis. Therefore, Hellfire Longbow and Stinger missiles, a 30-mm rapid-fire cannon, a 7.62-mm machine gun, an active phased array radar and an electron-optical aiming unit were simultaneously mounted on this platform. It is unknown how effective such a "combine" is, it has not been tested in a real combat situation.
As already noted, this incident is not the first with the equipment of this numerous family of medium-wheeled vehicles. In 2020, in Poland, while following in a convoy, such an armored personnel carrier burned down. The fire was so strong that we had to call for help from local firefighters.
In 2018, four armored personnel carriers collided in Lithuania at once. 13 soldiers were injured. In 2015, a Stryker crashed into a passenger car, no casualties were reported at that time.
