The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever
Ah, an article I can comment on.  I was an Infantry officer for 6 years and did all the normal schooling and a deployment.<p>This is a pretty well done article.  Here&#x27;s some general ideas to keep in mind.<p>- Most dismounted missions are run from trucks or an established forward operating base, so you don&#x27;t carry a huge rucksack most of the time because you can just go back to your base.<p>- Like the article states, even a day pack with body armor gets you up to 70lbs quickly.<p>- Ammo is really heavy, it being made of lead and all.  100rds of 7.62mm ammo weighs about 7lb.  You want at least 800rds per M240B.<p>- Rucksack weights are sometimes inflated because it&#x27;s a way to brag.<p>- The Marine infantry officer course requirement for 152lb load is excessive.  At that weight, you can only do an admin movement on a road.  All the anecdotes I found about combat loads that heavy were for an initial, short infil followed by a stationary mission.<p>I think the article nails the root cause towards heavier protective equipment.  Public perception and the news cycle makes the death of American service member a bigger deal than in past conflicts.<p>It will be a long time before we get electronic mules in the Infantry.  Adopting the mules adds a huge complexity budget to a simple movement.  The Army decided some years ago to give every Company (~140 people) a Raven drone for recon.  However, it&#x27;s a huge deal if it gets lost (if the GPS guidance were to suddenly fail), so no one ever uses them to avoid the fallout associated with losing Army equipment.