The problems of the 21st Century Soldier have increased terribly, in terms of load bearing. From an average of 16kg of load during World War II, by the end of the 1st Decade of 21st Century, the load has ballooned to 30 to 60kg, depending on mission requirements. Rather than becoming more nimble and agile, they are rather becoming more like pack mules.

Such load increases are brought about by technologies that soldiers need to fight, and these are not weapons and ammo only. These are more the electronics and protective gear such as radios, navigation tools, vests, pads, eyewear, batteries, ballistic plates, helmets, sighting equipment and so on... When you all add these up, they amount to such a signifcant weight to a soldier's load. Given that the battlefield at this moment is a high-altitude, mountainous terrain such as Afghanistan, just getting from one point to another to setup a patrol base, a skirmish line, or ambush position, is very much a tedious exercise, that even Iron Man competitors may find it tough to do.

By the time they approach an objective, they are already tired, stressed, and would probably take short and dangerous shortcuts to accomplish missions.

Have you ever realised the stress you get just thinking of the load you bear when playing airsoft? You might be carrying a lighter load than a real soldier, but you do feel that weight still. Multiply that several times over for the soldier.

The Americans are going for a high-tech route in solving the load issue, with Lockheed Martin proposing the HULC which is a solution in load bearing by using an exoskeleton. The British went a little bit low-tech, with the BAE Systems Ultra Lightweight Warrior (ULW) system. IMHO, I think the British approach is the more practical and lowcost than the American one. The HULC is a mechanical one that does not actually solve weight reduction, the ULW tackles it directly and does not include an extra attachment to the soldier.

BAE Systems proposes that the best way to help the soldier carry the weight is an integrated approach to reduce the weight of the items he/she carries for the mission. It is not adding an additional contraption that may just mulfunction at the most untimely situation. Thus, BAE identified the common and important equipment that the soldier carries for missions and went right to work to effectively reducing their weight in these areas:

• Helmet
• Vest/Soft Body Armor
• Armor Plates
• Load Carrying Equipment
• Wearable Power System

What they did is to integrate components for different purposes into single packages. The armor plates can also be a source of power for the electronics sytems and with adapters, you can connect the electronic equipment to draw power from. You eliminate batteries all over the soldier's pockets, and they also have different battery sizes. And it will serve its original as an armor plate to protect the soldier from projectiles.

BAE systems claim that with the ULW,  they can reduce the weight for the modern warfighter by to 50% depending on the mission requirements. If they can do this, they effectively help minimize one of the most dangerous elements of a mission, the battle stress.

Both the ULW and HULC can work together. The ULW for soldiers who have the usual assault loads, and the HULC for those who cannot avoid carrying heavier load, such as logistics, engineering, medical, artillery, and support weapons people. For now, the ULW is the most practical approach that it can help signifcantly reduce costs too rather than issuing a more expensive HULC system to the most number of soldiers.

Weight is always a problem, and with the ULW, it may just be one step into the right direction of making the soldiers' lives more comfortable and still be effective in the field.