Снаряжение ALICE: История и особенности американской системы переноски грузов.

Equipment

The All Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) is a set of load carrying equipment adopted as United States Army Standard A on 17 January 1973 to replace the M 1956 Individual Load Carrying Equipment (ILCE) and M 1967 Modernized Load Carrying Equipment (MLCE). Although since superseded by MOLLE, ALICE gear is still in some limited use with the U. S. Army National Guard, State Guard, also some ground units of the Navy and Air Force.

The ALICE system retains the concept of separate fighting and existence loads that was refined in the mid 1950s during the development of the M 1956 equipment. The most important point in the fighting and existence loads concept is that an infantry rifleman should carry only the items necessary to complete the immediate mission at hand. The load an infantry rifleman carries should not include any other item that can be carried another way. Because the type of mission, terrain, and environmental conditions will influence the clothing and individual equipment requirements, the unit commander may prescribe to the infantry rifleman the essential items. The prime purpose of the fighting and existence loads concept is to lighten an infantry rifleman's load. The typical individual fighting load is made up of essential items of clothing, individual equipment, small arms, and small arms ammunition that are carried by, and are essential to, the effectiveness of the combat infantry rifleman and the accomplishment of the immediate mission of the unit when the infantry rifleman is on foot. Normally these items are carried on the individual equipment belt and individual equipment belt suspenders. The typical individual existence load consists of items other than those in the individual fighting load which are required to sustain or protect the infantry rifleman, which may be necessary for the infantry rifleman's increased personal and environmental protection, and which the infantry rifleman normally would not carry. When possible, the individual existence load items are transported by means other than man carry. Otherwise both the fighting and existence loads are carried by the infantry rifleman. Individual existence load items are usually carried in the field pack.

The All Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment is the result of the LINCLOE (Lightweight Individual Clothing And Equipment) program that began in 1965 and terminated with the adoption of the ALICE system on 17 January 1973. The goal of the individual equipment portion of the LINCLOE program was to develop a lightweight load carrying system in an effort to lighten a combat soldier's overall load.

Based principally on the conclusions and recommendations of A Study To Reduce The Load Of The Infantry Combat Soldier, 1962 and A Study To Conserve Energy Of The Combat Infantryman, 1964, the army established a Quantitative Material Requirement (QMR) in 1965 calling for the development of LINCLOE. Although the development of the LINCLOE load carrying equipment did not officially start until after the United States Army Materiel Command Technical Committee (AMCTC) approved the project 27 April 1966, development of lightweight load carrying equipment really began in 1961 with the development of the Lightweight Rucksack (FSN 8465 782 3248) made of nylon fabrics and an aluminum frame which weighed as compared to the cotton canvas duck and steel item which it replaced. The development of this lightweight rucksack led to an informal inquiry by officers of the infantry community as to the possibility of reducing the weight of the M 1956 Load Carrying Equipment (LCE). As a result of this interest, the army produced a set of LCE in 1962, substituting available nylon materials for the cotton canvas duck. This set of nylon load carrying equipment weighed slightly more than as opposed to for the cotton canvas duck items. These two items, the lightweight rucksack and the set of nylon LCE, formed the basis for that portion of the LINCLOE Quantitative Material Requirement dealing with load carrying equipment. Annex A to the Quantitative Material Requirement set a goal of for the individual load carrying equipment and for the rucksack. Officials decided that the design of the new load carrying equipment would follow that of the standard load carrying equipment with material changes from cotton canvas duck to nylon duck and replacement of the brass and steel hardware with aluminum or plastic items. The design effort went slowly, due to the concentration on the design and development of items to meet the requirement of the Vietnam War, although developers initiated projects investigating the feasibility of replacing much of the steel and brass hardware with aluminum or plastic items. On 15 March 1967, an Engineering Concept Review was held at Natick Laboratories. The concept approved at the meeting was for an individual equipment belt to be supported by individual equipment suspenders, to which could be attached component items such as small arms ammunition cases, water canteen covers, intrenching tool carriers, field first aid dressing cases, etc. A field pack somewhat larger than the M 1961 cotton canvas duck field pack was proposed which could be attached for carrying either on the individual equipment belt at the small of the back, or on the shoulders attached to the individual equipment belt suspenders, or attached to a detachable field pack frame. The field pack frame with shoulder straps and a removable cargo shelf would be designed to be worn over the individual equipment belt and suspenders. The end result of this meeting was the adoption of the nylon M 1967 Modernized Load Carrying Equipment (MLCE). The field pack design was rejected in the end and a nylon version of the M 1961 field pack was produced instead along with the nylon Tropical Rucksack (FSN 8465 935 6673).

Even after the adoption of the MLCE in 1967, developments continued under the LINCLOE program. The MLCE was envisioned for use strictly in tropical environments and the development of a standard load carrying equipment system to replace all load carrying equipment systems continued. During 1968, the LINCLOE program continued to refine the lightweight load carrying system. A prototype system was designed utilizing some of the existing MLCE components such as the water canteen cover, small arms ammunition cases, and field first aid dressing case. The individual equipment belt buckle was replaced with a plastic version of the Davis quick release buckle and a new Vest, Combat was developed to replace the individual equipment belt suspenders. Teams developed both a small and large field pack utilizing the detachable field pack frame concept scrapped in 1967. These prototype items were presented at a Design Characteristics Review And Prototype System Review held at Natick Laboratories 26 March 1968. They invited the LINCLOE LCE Project Officer from Natick Laboratories to attend this meeting and present the status of load carrying equipment items. The Commanding General at Fort Benning was unaware of the effort underway to improve the load carrying equipment as well as other items of individual clothing and equipment. As a result of the LINCLOE LCE Project Officer's attendance at this meeting, the group established a Non commissioned Officers (NCO) Board to suggest improvements to load carrying equipment items. The following items were recommended when modified as indicated:
Belt, Individual Equipment – Design as furnished for evaluation with two (one upper and one lower) rows of eyelets and aluminum quick release buckle. Also with new clinch buckle size adjustment system. Suspenders, Individual Equipment Belt – M 1967 design but with single support/attachment strap in rear. The Vest, Combat was eliminated from the program due to being over complicated and prone to failure. Carrier, Intrenching Tool – molded EVA version but utilizing metal snap closures (instead of plastic). Case, Field First Aid Dressing – Enlarged version of the M 1967 design capable of holding two field first aid dressings. Also with metal snap closures (instead of plastic). Case, Small Arms Ammunition – M 1967 30 round cartridge magazine design but with support strap replaced with eyelet (to attach to individual equipment belt suspenders). Also internal divider flaps to keep cartridge magazines separated and different method of attaching hand grenades to the sides. Cover, Water Canteen – M 1967 design but utilizing metal snap closures (instead of plastic). Also without pile lining and openings at the bottom to allow for drainage. Also proposed in the letter were improved versions of the small and large field pack and field pack frame. During April and June 1970, teams fabricated a prototype system of load carrying equipment as described in the 15 April 1970 letter. They presented this set of load carrying equipment to the NCO Board and Infantry Team for review at Fort Benning on 18–19 June 1970. On 29 July 1970, representatives from the United States Army Combat Developments Command and the LINCLOE LCE Project Officer met at Natick Laboratories and drafted a revision of the LINCLOE LCE Quantitative Material Requirement as it pertained to load carrying equipment including the characteristics for each individual item. This was based primarily on the outcome of the 17 March 1970 meeting with one major exception. The LINCLOE LCE Project Officer added a third field pack to the system. This was the medium field pack with a bag made from the nylon tropical rucksack, modified to meet the NCO Board requirements for a small field pack by adapting it to be worn on the back with or without a field pack frame. On 5 October 1970, a Design Characteristics Review And Prototype System Review was held at Natick Laboratories concerning the new LINCLOE LCE. The group approved Quantitative Material Requirement for the new second generation LINCLOE LCE with minor changes. Natick Laboratories fabricated fifteen sets of the second generation LINCLOE LCE and shipped them to Army European Headquarters (USAREUR) 17 November 1970 for evaluation. In December 1970, the United States Army Support Center, Virginia fabricated an additional 300 sets of the second generation LINCLOE LCE and sent them to Natick Laboratories for assembly and shipment to test sites. In August 1971, the test sets were sent to Fort Benning, Fort Greely, Fort Devens, and, as requested, to the Marine Corps at Quantico. Pre test inspections uncovered a number of deficiencies with the field packs which were returned to Natick Laboratories for modification. The modified items went back to the test sites in November 1971 and the service test began.

The ALICE system has been phased out of all Active and Reserve Component (USAR and Army National Guard) units of the U. S. Army. Basic and Advanced Individual Training units, to include OCS, ROTC, and USMA, use current MOLLE equipment. ALICE was succeeded by Generation I MOLLE equipment. The Navy and USAF use ALICE gear for ground personnel as well, although the USAF is phasing out ALICE in favor of MOLLE. The Marine Corps still issues the medium ALICE pack for some radio operators. Both it and the large variant can still be found with NROTC units (who train Marine officers in addition to Navy officers). Active duty training units (Recruit Training, School of Infantry, Officer Candidates School, The Basic School) and deployable units have switched over to the new Family of Improved Load Bearing Equipment (USMC Pack) or the slightly older Improved Load Bearing Equipment (ILBE) system. MARSOC makes extensive use of ALICE or Modified ALICE (MALICE) packs for ruck running events in training (Assessment and Selection, Initial Training Course, and Special Operations Training Course), pre deployment evaluations, and the Raider Games. Small maneuver elements which rely on lightweight pack design and durability still use ALICE packs today. ALICE packs were largely distributed to US allied nations in Central and South America. Afghanistan, Georgia and Iraq received ALICE packs as part of military aid in 21st century. Iranian Military and Law Enforcement still make heavy use of ALICE, MLC and LCE gear, but they are switching to MOLLE equipment (specifically IRGC and Army special forces) because of being more modular and to IIFS for being more lightweight.

: Panama Defense Forces soldiers wore locally produced copies.