WARREN, Mich. – The Army’s Project Manager Stryker Brigade Combat Team took the first steps in retrograding their equipment from Operation Enduring Freedom when it accepted the final repaired Stryker from its forward deployed Battle Damage Repair facility in Qatar.

The facility has been instrumental in keeping Strykers in the fight on the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan.

“Due to the high operational tempo Strykers were seeing in theater, there was no time to send battle damaged assets back to a stateside depot for repair,” said David Dopp, the project manager, Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

The Army quickly determined that the only way to keep the operational readiness rate of the Stryker fleet at a high level was to establish a facility in the Middle East where assets could be quickly shipped, fixed and returned to the fight.

And, the Army was correct. The Battle Damage Repair facility, or BDR, has been an unequivocal success.

“The technicians at the BDR are extraordinary in what they do,” said Dopp. “Some of the Strykers are in pretty rough shape when they arrive, and within a short time they roll out the door good as new, ready to re-enter the fight. The technicians at our facility are one of the main reasons our operational readiness rate has been consistently above of 90 percent.”

The BDR has supported Strykers from both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

The final repaired Stryker from the BDR was completed in April, and it was the 422nd Stryker repaired in Qatar and returned to support the warfighter, said Dopp.

In addition to the 422 repaired platforms, the Qatar facility also successfully executed the RESET of 80 Strykers in support of non-Stryker brigades in southwest Asia.

A total of 502 Strykers have been refurbished at the BDR, said Dopp.

The upcoming closure of the Qatar BDR facility in 2014 concludes a successful mission, said Dopp. During its time in operation over the past decade, the BDR supported 19 Stryker deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army and industry team in Qatar have been instrumental in saving lives by quickly repairing and returning Stryker platforms to the fight.