Soldiers convey experiences with battlefield equipment.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Soldiers returning from the battlefields of Afghanistan are pleading with military weapon developers and contractors to slash the weight of ammunition, which hampers their overall mobility.

A case in point is the need for lighter ammunition for attack helicopters.

"I beg all of you, reduce the weight of ammunition," said Col. Frank Wiercinski to a crowd of armaments experts attending a conference in Parsippany, N.J. Wiercinski, now chief of the Special Forces Division at the Joint Staff, was the commander of Task Force Rakkasan in the battle of Shah-I-Kot Valley, during Operation Enduring Freedom, in Afghanistan.

Systems have to be lightweight, especially counter-mortars, he said. "You have to be constantly mobile.... Every system has to be ready for the fight, regardless of what you think you are going to use or not use."

Operators of the Apache attack helicopter, for example, tend to favor the use of flechette rounds in many missions, he contended. "Because of the altitude, the Apache has to keep moving and has to run from fire," he said. "In that system, the rockets and the guns work predominantly the best."

Apache units loaded extra fuel bladders into the aircraft. "That cut down on the amount of gun ammo that we could store in the belly of the Apache. So, rockets became suddenly important--flechettes ... That is what we need in a system in an environment like that."

For dismounted soldiers, meanwhile, the top equipment priorities are functionality and ease of use.

"My soldiers today can't handle those types of weapons as in the Land Warrior or Objective Force Warrior. They have problems loading their weapons, [as is]," said Staff Sgt. Lonnie Schultz, who led a squad in Operation Anaconda.

"Make my stuff lighter," he said. "Make some of my stuff--that does not work--work." Soldiers fighting in Anaconda were unhappy with their PAQ4C laser-aiming devices, because they were not compatible with some of the Air Force's laser-guided bombs.

For close combat, the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon System did not do its intended job, he said. The soldiers often call this weapon the "Green Tip." The M249 AR is a gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-and magazine-fed, automatic weapon.

"When I shoot somebody who is not behind a wall, that is not wearing body armor, I expect them to go down. I do not expect the penetrators to go right through," Schultz said. "It happened on numerous occasions. I can tell you from my own experience, if you shoot it from 150-200...