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C-17s deliver Army’s Strykers

For the Army’s Stryker combat vehicle, the road to Afghanistan goes through the cargo bay of the Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster.

C-17s deployed out of Pacific Air Forces began airlifting 300-plus Strykers in early June. The Stryker-hauling C-17s are an addition to the Globemaster squadrons deployed to Central Command, said Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Two Strykers fit into a C-17. On average, each Stryker weighs about 19 tons and measures 23 feet long, not including detachable armor.

The Strykers are assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash. The vehicles left by sea last month for an undisclosed port closer to Afghanistan. From there, the C-17s are flying the Strykers into the war zone.

It will take about two months to deliver all of the Strykers, Brockhoff said. He declined to name the base to which the Strykers are being flown.

Also picking up Strykers are Antonov AN-124 cargo planes chartered from private companies. While AN-124s were originally intended as a Soviet bloc version of the C-5 Galaxy, today the planes are often hired to help airlift large U.S. military cargo such as Strykers and helicopters.

The Stryker unit is the first one sent into Afghanistan. The Army drove Strykers into Iraq.

Driving Strykers into Afghanistan was ruled out because of the high threat along the few roads leading into the country and restrictions on shipping war materials through neighboring countries, U.S. officials said earlier this year.