THE TENSION: Photo Essay: Strykers

The Stryker fulfills an immediate requirement in the Army's current transformation process to equip a strategically deployable (C-17/C-5) and operationally deployable (C-130) brigade capable of rapid movement anywhere on the globe in a combat ready configuration. (U.S. Army photo.)

Spc. Jin Wang, A Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, mans a checkpoint during a training raid early Aug. 5. (U.S. Army photo.)

A Stryker vehicle from the 56th SBCT, Pennsylvania National Guard, moves out to conduct joint operations during JRTC rotation Sept. 2 at Fort Polk, La. (U.S. Army photo.)

The newly refurbished Strykers of 4th Bde., 2nd Inf. Div. sit at a motor pool Jan. 22 at Fort Lewis. (U.S. Army photo.)

Spc. Tiffany Knotts stands next to her Stryker vehicle Oct. 13 at Camp Taji, northwest of Baghdad. Knotts is reportedly the first woman Stryker driver in the Army. (U.S. Army photo.)

Depot mechanics Mark Epps (left) and Patrick Webber (middle) work alongside General Dynamics engineer Jeff Monroe to perform a limited technical inspection in June on a Stryker mobile gun system before it's reset to like-new condition at Anniston Army Depot. (U.S. Army photo.)

The Army recently received authorization to purchase an additional 95 Stryker nuclear, biological and chemical reconnaissance vehicles, like the one displayed Dec. 17, at the Pentagon. The Stryker NBCRV is an NBC testing lab on wheels. It is intended as a replacement for the Fox NBC Reconnaissance System. (U.S. Army photo.)