Ibanez
February 9, 2011, 1:35am
21
Bear_Nenno:
<snip>Forgive my concise answer, but I just spent an hour typing up a response and I just lost the fucking thing. Here’s the ammunition load for a basic, 5-6 hour everyday type mission my patrol would carry.
12 M4s with 210 rounds each
You sure you guys should be given out this type of information on the internet ?
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smithsb
February 9, 2011, 2:03am
22
All that data is available on the intertubes. Also, different missions might dictate additional troops like engineers for demolition, air defense with Stingers, an 81 or 120mm mortar platoon, shotguns, TOW missiles, maybe Javelins, etc… A lot is different for regular infantry, artillery, armor, transportation units, dental and med folks.
Sleel
February 9, 2011, 2:16am
23
Bear_Nenno:
We don’t consider the M249 a machinegun, just a “Squad Automatic Weapon”. Basica combat load for it is 1000 rounds. One 200 round drum in the weapon and 4 more on the kit. In practice, it is usually one 100 round pounch on the weapon and 800 rounds on the person.
For the M240B Machine gun, the basic combat load is 900 rounds. In practice, it is around 1000 rounds divided among the three man gun team. If it’s a longer mission, other people will start carrying 100 round belts in their their packs for when the MG team gets low.
Also, some missions have us bringing a mortar team along with us. They don’t seem to ever carry ANY of their own rounds. The mortar tube and base plate are pretty heavy themsleves. So almost everyone adds a mortar round to their pack for the mortar team.
The best information I’ve found on modern equipment weight for soldiers says that a combat load maxes out at around 80–90 lbs. which seems pretty damn heavy if you need to be able to move with any kind of speed. The figures I’ve seen for shorter missions is about 1/2 to 2/3 of that.
Is that about right, in your experience? What is your typical loadout weight for patrols vs. longer deployments? I’m guessing that food/water weight is kept pretty minimal considering the weight of all the other equipment, especially ammo; maybe a couple of meals plus about 1–2 days water (3–4 l)?
Sleel:
The best information I’ve found on modern equipment weight for soldiers says that a combat load maxes out at around 80–90 lbs. which seems pretty damn heavy if you need to be able to move with any kind of speed. The figures I’ve seen for shorter missions is about 1/2 to 2/3 of that.
Is that about right, in your experience? What is your typical loadout weight for patrols vs. longer deployments? I’m guessing that food/water weight is kept pretty minimal considering the weight of all the other equipment, especially ammo; maybe a couple of meals plus about 1–2 days water (3–4 l)?
Here’s a good report on this: http://thedonovan.com/archives/modernwarriorload/ModernWarriorsCombatLoadReport.pdf
The report talks about 3 types of load: fighting load, approach load, and emergency approach load. They each have more things in them and build on top of the other. The report breaks it down for essentially everyone in the rifle company, but here’s the common grunts:
Equipment Common to Riflemen: