Lightening the soldiers load

There are many ways to lighten the soldier's load, certainly. However, when looking at a firearm they should also review how the average soldier is going to take practicing with full power FMJ loads in something so so light; and we all could use more practice, specially when they are counted on be proficient at it.
 
There are some erroneous "facts" in the write up. I didn't read it all but the terminal performance of the 5.7x28mm round is rather pathetic and not the amazing level of lethality the article would have you believe. That is not a secret and is old news, at that point I stopped reading the dribble.

TW25B
 
No one remember the Bill Mauldin cartoon of Willie and Joe.
"You're carrying way too much.
Throw the joker out of the deck of cards."
 
The solution is already around, plastic case telescoped ammo. The weapon itself is nothing compared to the 20lb of metallic catridges carried into a battle.
 
The original M16 weighed 6 pounds with an empty (20) round aluminum magazine. Today's M4 "carbine" weighs 8 lbs empty, before the optic is attached to it. What happened?? IMHO two things:

1) the heavy barrel/Government profile barrel - that sucker adds a lot of weight to what was a lightweight rifle.

2) lights, lasers, grenade launchers, optics - I don't care how little they weigh, start adding them to a basic rifle and you up the weight quickly. As the hikers (and infantry :d ) say, ounces equals pounds, and pounds equals pain.

I read somewhere that a modern soldier carries around 90 lbs of gear, including uniform, helmet, body armor, tac vest, rifle, ammo, water and rations, plus his share of the squad equipment, on a typical 3-day mission. That's a lot of weight to carry into a battle. I know that when the firing starts, the pack is usually dropped wherever its owner happens to be and is usually retrieved after the firefight.

Is there a way to cut some of that weight off the soldier's back?
 
So pretty much what I got from this article: AR's are assault rilfes, 5.56x45 has zero lethality or armour piercing capabilities, NATO should be dissolved because Russia definitely isn't in the Ukraine, and it's not logistically a pain in the ass to turn in literally every rifle and strip it down to 80% and then rebuild it back up again.

OR

Just don't pack to OPS 100.
 
Is there a way to cut some of that weight off the soldier's back?
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It's already being done with gear.

For example, Blue Force Gear Helium Whisper / Ten Speed.

If you take a Chinook and load it up with guys and their rigs, then replace only the Malice Clips on the carriers they are wearing with Helium Whisper attachments (not the pouches, just the attachments) you would save around 170lbs.

Now if you replaced the entire complement of pouches and carriers with BFG Helium whisper, you'd have some major weight savings.


Overall though what it means is more ammo, water, batteries etc. that can be carried.
 
shredder said:
The original M16 weighed 6 pounds with an empty (20) round aluminum magazine. Today's M4 "carbine" weighs 8 lbs empty, before the optic is attached to it. What happened?? IMHO two things:

1) the heavy barrel/Government profile barrel - that sucker adds a lot of weight to what was a lightweight rifle.

2) lights, lasers, grenade launchers, optics - I don't care how little they weigh, start adding them to a basic rifle and you up the weight quickly. As the hikers (and infantry :d ) say, ounces equals pounds, and pounds equals pain.

I read somewhere that a modern soldier carries around 90 lbs of gear, including uniform, helmet, body armor, tac vest, rifle, ammo, water and rations, plus his share of the squad equipment, on a typical 3-day mission. That's a lot of weight to carry into a battle. I know that when the firing starts, the pack is usually dropped wherever its owner happens to be and is usually retrieved after the firefight.

Is there a way to cut some of that weight off the soldier's back?
Click to expand...

A base m4 with the 14.5" barrel weighs 6.5 lbs not 8.
 
I remember attending the Colt AR armorer course in the US and the instructor HATED the (then) new railing systems coming onto the market: "the R&D people spent years and tons of money to develop the best, the lightest, carbine in the field, and people double the weight of it with all the crap hanging off those rails....." He may have had a point.
 
You need those crap on the carbines for low light and night fighting.

Soldier load is going up and not stopping. The CF just made the purchase of integrated combat system for each individual infanteer, that includes an individual radio, pos tracker and a little iPad like gadget. It is supposed to be no less than 4.5 kg ( 10 lb)

There is no getting out of this, until we have infanteer droids or armoured exoskeleton suits
 
Sinasta said:
You saying people are going to have difficulty shooting 556 from a 4lb carbine?
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^x2 A lighter weight combat rifle (4lb. AR w/o accessories) might be just about right, because once you add all the necessary pieces of kit (optics/night vision/lasers...) to give them an advantage over (or at the least keep pace with) their enemy the rifle would likely weigh around 7lbs. to 8lbs. which is a good weight to stay under for a combat ready arms rifle.

Thanks Rhino62 for posting it up...

Cheers D
 
greentips said:
You need those crap on the carbines for low light and night fighting.

Soldier load is going up and not stopping. The CF just made the purchase of integrated combat system for each individual infanteer, that includes an individual radio, pos tracker and a little iPad like gadget. It is supposed to be no less than 4.5 kg ( 10 lb)

There is no getting out of this, until we have infanteer droids or armoured exoskeleton suits
Click to expand...

And the new ruck is large enough that I don't need to send any uab for deployment. Ruck and two BB seem to hold plenty now.
 
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