Personnel Load out
Been thinking a lot about this post. During a recent visit to the US Army’s Manoeuvre Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, I discussed the issue of saving weight with a senior group responsible for equipment procurement. There was unanimous agreement that whatever efforts are made to lighten individual pieces of equipment, any weight saved will soon be “compensated” for by adding something else. So, the idea that combat weights are best controlled by those who lead soldiers in the field is correct. Leaders must ensure that their troops are not overburdened. The problem is that issued load carrying equipment makes it all too easy to exceed sensible limits.
Even before a soldier dons his web equipment, he is wearing almost 19 kg in clothing and body armour. More than anything, it is helmet and body armour that have most added an extra 10 kg in overall weight carried. Body armour has become so good at reducing casualties that it is here to stay.
Looking at the British Army’s new VIRTUS load-carrying equipment, it still defines three basic load levels. Assault order, Patrol Order, and Marching Order. These existed with 1908 Pattern webbing, 37 Pattern, 44 Pattern, 58 Pattern and PLCE 1990. Regardless of the names, each load is designed to ensure dismounted infantry operate with maximum efficiency across mission types and duration.
Assault Order (or Belt kit) is the lightest load level. Infantrymen carry the bare minimum of equipment needed for dismounted close combat.. It typically includes ammunition, water bottle, emergency rations, bayonet, grenades and a respirator. It has always been a struggle to keep the weight of this below 10 kg, but at 12 kg I believe it is already beyond the limit of what should be carried.
Patrol Order (or Fighting order) adds a useful Day Sack that is vastly superior to previous haversacks and kidney pouches. Again, the challenge is not to pack-in too much extra kit. But this adds a further 16 kg of weight and includes more ammunition, rations, cooker, waterproof clothing, an entrenching tool, and miscellaneous equipment.
Marching Order adds a rucksack to carry all of the additional equipment a soldier needs to sustain operations in the field. It includes a sleeping bag, change of clothing, washing / shaving equipment and other miscellaneous items. It adds a further 16 kg of weight.
With these three loads added together, it is very easy to get to 60-70 kg in total weight. This is simply unsustainable.
It is worth noting that UKSF typically carry just Belt order plus Bergen rucksacks . As a reconnaissance platoon commander operating dismounted in Kenya, Cyprus and Belize, we typically adopted this approach. We tried to limit belt order weight to 10 kg and Bergen weight to 25 kg. To do this, we had to ruthless prune whatever we carried.
In many respects VIRTUS is conceptually the same to Belt Order plus Bergen, but usefully adds a Day Sack, to provide additional flexibility when carrying mission-specific kit. While VIRTUS does much to improve ergonomics and comfort; however, the additional capacity / utility it provides only encourages users to add more and more equipment to their combat loads.
Given the long-term health impact carrying excessive weights is having on today’s generation of soldiers, which is the same as heavy loads had on previous generations, the time has come for senior commanders to mandate that soldiers never carry more than 35 kg of equipment, or more than 50% of their body weight, at any time.
My personal limit is a twenty kilogramme backpack, and maybe forty kilogrammes total distributed.
I'm pretty sure the Special Air Service prefers thirty kilogrammes combat patrol.
