Couple of things:
One, again, it comes down to Doctrine. Doctrine dictates all things.
Second, Cavalry hasn't always fought dismounted: In fact, until the advent of repeating firearms, it was death to dismount - at which point, until the advent of Armoured vehicles, Cavalry turned into nothing more than mounted infantry for is was death to stay mounted in the face of the sorts of firepower modern weapons (modern as in late 1800's) could put out.
Third: NO one is doing any traditional Cavalry Missions overseas anymore higher than at the Brigade level. In fact, most brigade scout platoons are being used more along the lines of an ad-hoc kinda-sorta wanna-be spec-ops type of role.
Fourth: I never said the Stryker was totally useless: Well.. maybe the *stryker* itself, but the concept behind the Stryker makes a lot of good solid sense. The Stryker has far to many bells and whistles for what it does. Now, as a family of vehicles, filling a multitude of roles with the same chassis? Pure Gold. If the vehicle itself was better, I would be all for it. I was all for the Stryker Program back before they settled on the Stryker itself: I think for less money we would have a better vehicle if we based it off of the ASLAV or NZLAV. Both of those focus more on mission than on fancy electronics - and are based on the same family of vehicles that the Stryker, Bison, Grizzly, Cougar, and LAV-25 come from, so we know they are mechanically sound. And originally while in the testing phase we used the Italian Centaro Armoured Cars, and those performed fantastically - and again, was cheaper.
Back on Doctrine, and Dragoon500ly check me on this, the Cavalry Mission depends on where the unit falls.
If it is a brigade scout platoon, its less cav than it is pure localized recce - whats over the hill in front of us, around the corner, and maybe the next town. DivCav squadrons - the lowest level of unit to be designated Cavalry - is focused on what will effect the division itself: Whats in the next town, how is the route to it, and the counter-recce mission. The only time it is supposed to get in a knock out drag out fight is in the counter recce role, as well as being able to make short work out of anything it stumbles into - but not to go out and look for trouble. Where as the scout platoon would be best mounted in light vehicles like the humvee, DivCav would be well suited to riding into battle in Light Armoured Vehicles. Enough armour to handle small arms fire, fast and light to take full advantage of the road network, and able to run off road almost as good as a tracked vehicle with enough firepower (In the MPGS) to deal with any small units it bumps into. And they wouldn't dismount except to form OP's: Most if not all of the recce they would do would be done mounted, for DivCav operates forward of the main line of battle, and they need the mobility to do the job. Corp level cav is in the form of the ACR. These have to be heavy: These form the same role German Gepanzart Aufklarungsschwadrons had in the second world war. One is to provide a corp level recon element, that had the strength and firepower to fight its way through (And by this, it is understood that its more a case to allow them to slip through, not destroy units holding the line) the enemies front line, and to operate in the backfield performing a level of recon that straddles the border between strategic and tactical levels, and then return to friendly lines. The second, is as a form of corp level fire brigade - a compact reserve force that can be committed as a hip pocket formation that is fully contained within itself, and doesn't need corp level assets to perform whatever mission is assigned to it. In this mission, the Stryker - or any similar vehicle for that matter - doesn't have the firepower or protection to pull it off. Which is why converting the ACR's from its heavy formation of Abram's and Bradley's is a huge mistake in my opinion.
As to armour isn't good at hiding, goes to show you haven't dealt with sneaky SOB tankers. The M1 is very good at sneaking and peaking. Better than the Bradley oddly enough - the Abrams is very quiet, lower, and has much better optics. While, and I said this earlier, the Stryker has a huge advantage, even over the very quiet Abrams, in the noise it generates - to a point, you still have that noisy diesel. I've personally snuck up to the back of a Brad in an Abrams, close enough to where the first they saw me was when my tube snagged the tarp hanging off of the back of it. I could have nudged the troop door closed, but I didn't trust my driver that much that close to another vehicle. I have *never* seen a CVC thrown so hard, so far, in my life.
