Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: M1128 Stryker MGS

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[glenndean]

Great video! Added clarifications and misc Stryker MGS facts ...
- MGS-0001 spent its field life as a training vehicle at the Infantry Center / Maneuver Center. It had a reputation as the most reliable MGS in the fleet.
- Fleet MGS actually came in three configurations -- reconfigured prototypes (like 0001) and two iterations of LRIP. Because the vehicle never went into full rate production they were never standardized, even after completing the "Dirty 66" operational test fixes and the 2016 reliability upgrade. As a result, the technical manuals had to account for all the fleet variations and were roughly 7, 000 pages in total.
- That door behind the pizza door is the external power port.
- Most of the titanium on the vehicle is in the turret structure and hatches; your magnet doesn't stick to the side because that's MEXAS composite add on armor like the rest of the Stryker fleet.
- CPV = Commander's Panoramic Viewer
- The MGS met its operational requirements, even reliability (whether that requirement was *right* is an exercise for the reader), and gave excellent combat service with GDLS mechanics maintaining over 95% OR in combat. Organizational and personnel decisions, as well as not getting to the full complement due to the decision not to take it to full rate production, which kept it too small a density to be effectively sustained, had more to do with its middling reputation in garrison and training than capability or design.
- That's not to say it wasn't a maintenance challenge -- it was; replenisher, autoloader, and turret electronics being most of the problems, and it was particularly hard to troubleshoot the electronics. Could have been fixed with more time and investment, but was not.
- The decision to retire the vehicle was mostly due to projected future sustainment and upgrade costs. A large number of the electronic components were going obsolete and would have needed refresh, plus there was never aa DVH variant developed -- doing both would have been fairly expensive (thought not as expensive as developing the M10 as a like capability). Given other lethality additions to the Stryker fleet (CROW-Javelin, 30mm cannons, etc) it was deemed an acceptable risk to retire the MGS rather than either limp along or do the significant refresh that would be required to match the new DVHA1 variants.

Looking forward to Part II!

[RMad-xb]

Former MGS driver, the worst part of being assigned on an MGS section was the fact that infantry officers think they are cool to look at, but would hardly give you any money to make them work properly.

[johnjordan]

An Army vehicle missing supplemental equipment? Kudos to the staff for going the extra mile for authenticity.

[Cancun]

"We got this 'Chieftain' guy coming in today making one of his bloomin' videos. So I need you to go down to the Stryker and zip-tie all the hatches!
*"And I mean **_all_** of them!!1"*

[beanhavok]

The Stryker's aesthetic is off the damn charts...

[stc]

When will the Chieftain do an inside the Chieftain video

[kaden]

Chieftain is opening hatches. Caption reads: "Officer effort noises."

[TheMalek_CH]

I served in the Swiss Army on the Mowag Piranha 2, which is sort of the grand uncle of the Stryker (Stryker was derived from the LAV 3 which was derived from the Piranha 3 which is the successor of the Piranha 2) and I find it very interesting how so many parts, hatches, levers and such are still completely the same as on the Piranha 2.

[genericpersonx]

I remember back when they first had MGS1128 coming out and some ol' hand happily mentioned it was the GMC M3 reborn. More I look at it, the more I see what he meant. Take a proven auxiliary vehicle with minimal armor, stick an obsolescent gun on it, and you have a surprisingly useful piece of kit. It might be a glass cannon, but it is a potent cannon, and a hell of a lot easier to get to and around a warzone.

[Doc_Roe]

I could watch Chieftain fumble, fiddle, flick and look inside of armored vehicles and all their compartments all day

[desmcharris]

"A big feckoff cannon !!" 😂😂😂

[quentinking]

That turret has such a convoluted history, being placed on one rejected prototype after another, and then it finally gets onto the MGS and was a maintenance nightmare because while they'd been trying to sell said turret for decades they hadn't been refining the design beyond prototype stage. Brilliant sales decision.

This contrasted with the rock solid CAT C7 driving a garbage truck's indestructible transmission.

[Real_Claudy_Focan]

Saw Sofilein's video about Stryker before it disappeared from YT !
I'm very happy to see another "inside tour" of this vehicle !

[jamesh]

I volunteer here. I'm here every month... and I still learned a lot- in fairness my passion is the world war(s) and not so much the modern stuff, but that's why we have creators like Chieftain here to teach me about the eras I'm largely in the dark on. This collection is doing amazing work restoring and keeping (indoors and in display condition) pieces of critical and living history, and they host an open house several times a year. Next one is in December 13, 2024 from 0900 until- mid afternoon-ish (closing time is decided by how many people come through during the day). There is a following open house in April that will feature a live fire exercise. A Stryker might make an appearance there...

[Omanjack]

I equally enjoy the well structured and researched videos we're used to from The Chieftain just as much as these more ad-hoc explorations.

[mw]

The tracked stryker is just nightmare fuel

[mikelangelo]

Stryker already in a museum, wow that was fast

[LukePRTR]

Front hatch is a service hatch, with diagnostics hookups and service air lines. There is two horns one is a traffic horn and the outside one is a super loud air horn. Trailer use on the stryker is mostly engineer varients the miclic demineing equipment. I saw medics with the Role 1 one time towing a trailer with a m1133 ambulance probably to be dropped off for the role 1 setup and continue ambulance operations. the passenger side tail light has a reverse thermal camera "check 6". the first exhaust shown is the heater exhaust, itll burn a hole throuhg your camo nets

[iivin]

The BCT system taught me that almost any idea can be made to sound good. I remember reading about the three types of brigade, thinking all that sounds like an excellent idea.

Then, the new divisional system was announced. And the information on that made me me think that all that was a great idea.

Turns out this military science thing is hard.

[bkane]

2 non connected tanks.

2 Switch just inside ramp under the floor, so you can pump from one tank to the other, and control which tank you pull from.

Fuel gauge only reads one of the tanks tho.