Thank God someone had the forsight to forward his E-Mail to those who can direct that it be taken notice of. Perhaps soldiers in the near future will reap the benifits!
I just seem to remember going through equipment checked before going to the field and dreading the words "You're light - take this ammo/battery/diesel engine/whatever."
Guess I just can't see an Army wherein that changes, and looking at individual loads carried by grunts since WW2 (admittedly a non-scientific enterprise usually done while drinking beers and listening to the old timers saying things like "Well, back when it was hard...") the weight of said load seems to come down to how much the soldier can carry, not based upon maintaining a parity with the capabilities or firepower of yesterday's soldiers.
A "Grunt" trigger puller certainly does not need a Palm Pilot or a Laptop. What he needs is decent clothes, boots, and weapons! The idea that bayonets are no longer a part of the infantry gear is nutso! What is a grunt going to do with a laptop...spam his enemy to death via email?
The article has "some" valid points...especially that urban warfare and street fighting may well be the end stage of any insertion into these hostile lands...and for that, we need well trained, basic grunt types who can rock and roll without batteries!
Give me a platoon of well trained Marines (and, by God, they ALL are!) and leave the Palm Pilots and laptops to the "Army of One"...the USMC has done it right for more than two centuries...unhinderdd, as they say, by "progres".
Semper Fi!