Info on Stryker Brigade

The first two Stryker Brigades were created at Fort Lewis in Washington state. Brigades in other parts of the country, including Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and Fort Polk, LA will convert to using Strykers over the next several years.

Each brigade consists of 3,614 soldiers and up to 167 Stryker combat vehicles, a dozen 155 mm cannons and dozens of mortars. The brigades also have access to Air Force and Navy jet fighters and a host of support capabilities.

But what makes the brigades special are 428-man intelligence-gathering teams called RISTA - (Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Surveillance and Target Acquisition) - equipped with high-tech surveillance devices. Each team uses three unmanned aerial drones (remote control airplanes) and other long-range sensing devices (Stryker based radar units and radio transmission interception devices) to essentially scan every detail of a combat zone in a complete circle for miles around. The RISTA teams carry enough firepower to extract themselves from just about any situation but their primary weapon is a field radio. (Our son is a member of a RISTA team. 1st Squadron -14th Cavalry. The Squadron consists of 4 Troops plus a Headquarters Troop.)

"They are your eyes and ears out there," said Col. Robert Brown, commander of the second Stryker Brigade to be formed. "It is what warriors have always wanted."

The unit also has what Brown calls "human-intelligence" soldiers (HUMINT) - "smart young men who know the right questions to ask" of captured enemy soldiers or civilians in a war zone. Those soldiers are trained in interrogation techniques and have immediate access to the CIA and other national intelligence databases through satellite links. Brown's technology also helps him to see the location of each vehicle in his own brigade and each enemy vehicle. He merely looks at a computer screen.

"I really think it is revolutionary," he said. "We see first. We understand first. We act first and we finish decisively."