Light infantry foot mobility standards?

[bumperplate]

Terrain is the big factor here, along with the load bearing issue. In the mountains with full kit, pace goes way down. 2mph would be a ballpark figure there. I would take that down to 1mph or less if you're not on switchbacks and trails and trying to go uphill.

Rolling grassland is very different than rolling terrain with bushes and trees that are about 6ft in height. You lose a lot of straight line distance by veering around objects, so that hurts the pace.

Standard pace on roads is 4mph. Not too bad. Not easy, not hard. For me, being shorter, after the first 6 miles I have to start the run a bit, walk a bit in order to stay at 4mph. My stride isn't that long and I don't have that ability to move in short but quick strides. Ken White is on the money about training. If I go out walking / hiking / rucking and I haven't done it in a while I'll move about 3.5mph and feel ok. After I do it a time or two, my pace goes to 3.8mph. I then have to remind myself to pick it up a bit to get to 4 or higher. With conditioning and practice it gets easier. There is definitely some skill factor to go along with the conditioning factor. Units that train for it will do much better, as Ken White stated.

Load plan is a big deal too. Weight on my hips makes mountain movement a bit easier than having it top-loaded on vest and pack. Keeps my COG where it should be. Feels much more efficient and biomechanically I believe adding 1lb on your feet is equivalent to adding 6lbs at the waist. More reason to pick your boots wisely. So, hip loads are more efficient. However, in complex terrain they can interfere a bit with moving your legs and feet over obstacles.

Bottom line, these days, if you want to get somewhere on foot and do it tactically you'd better plan to do it slowly. Tactical movement plus heavy loads equals slow movement. You can go quickly but it won't be tactical. It'll be loud, the dispersion will be awful, overwatch will disappear, and your guys are likely to be combat-ineffective at RP. Look at pictures of squads/plts in AFG. Many times you see them on a switchback or narrow trail, just walking. Probably making decent time but you can tell the security isn't there, they're spaced about 3m apart and the overwatch is not present. Again, they are making decent time from A to B, but tactically moving takes time and in AFG most of that should be tactical with overwatch, not a traveling movement.

Finally, if you track the studs that do the Bataan Memorial Death March in the heavy category (min 35lbs) you'll see some people out there do the full 26.2 miles in 6hrs. I've done it a few times now and my range is 7:45 to 8:15. When I finish I'm tired and certainly am glad to finish. However, if I wanted to stretch it out to a 12 hour active period (dawn to dusk, roughly) I could foresee getting in 30 miles per day for well conditioned individuals, with 8 hours or so of rest, and the other 4 in prep time, camp set up, security, gather food, water, etc.

[carl]

Kearny's Army of the West averaged about 20 miles a day on the trek from Fort Leavenworth to Bent's fort.

It occurs to me that the various American forces fighting in the Mexican-American war all had to walk to work over many types of terrain, mountains, deserts, forests and plains. It might be useful to look at their rates of travel.

[Polarbear1605]

Kearny's Army of the West averaged about 20 miles a day on the trek from Fort Leavenworth to Bent's fort.

It occurs to me that the various American forces fighting in the Mexican-American war all had to walk to work over many types of terrain, mountains, deserts, forests and plains. It might be useful to look at their rates of travel.

Standard US Marine requirement is a battalion to move 24 miles in eight hours with field marching pack, flak jacket, helmet, T/O weapon...approximately 55- 60 lbs and no ammo. Many foot sore Marines the next day...basic load of ammo and you can hit 75 lbs real quick. If I were you I would look at Lewis and Clark...different terrain, different modes, water, foot, horse...and google maps has it all layed out by journal entry.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...570313&t=h&z=4

[aps3.as]

New user,

read this post in my RSS feed and couldn't help but add some insights.

I have completed a 22-25 mile in what I believe was around 7 hours. I ran about 50% of the time, and carried 65-70 pounds dry (without water), over unimproved roads, and limited cross country (low vegetation). All I remember is I left at midnight and arrived at the destination just after full day break.

US Army infantry standard is 12 miles in 3 hours with around 35-40 pounds. Most will have to run a little, or at least full hard striding the whole way.

4 miles an hour with hardened troops is a reasonable pace to arrive at the destination in fighting shape. However, the aforementioned 22 mile march left me unable to do much for a day or so at completion.

Average patrolling speed for a deliberate foot patrol is 1 kilometer an hour cross country. This speed is planned when the element is moving slowly and deliberately.

Full cross country I have completed 20 kilometers in rough terrain, vegetation, and water crossings, in about 10 hours.

[jcustis]

Finally, if you track the studs that do the Bataan Memorial Death March in the heavy category (min 35lbs) you'll see some people out there do the full 26.2 miles in 6hrs.

Is it true that a SAS heavy team ran the entire route?

[bumperplate]

Is it true that a SAS heavy team ran the entire route?

I don't know who...but I do remember a couple times coming to the fork, around mile 9 or so?....where you go right onto the hardball. About that time the marathon runners are headed back. I have seen a couple people trot by in boots with a ruck on. No idea of their affiliation. It's impressive.

I've heard the rumors about the SAS team (heard SEAL and SF too). I don't think it takes a SAS team to do that. If I remember correctly, in the past few years, a team from the medical center at Ft. Bliss has won the team competition. That event is tailored to those that have the ability to train for it. That said - I could not do that, and it wouldn't surprise me if some cyborgs from SAS or CAG showed up and ran the thing, just for fun.

The studs that power through that event are impressive. However, it's more moving to see the survivors and then when going through the pit, to see wounded warriors going through there, with two prosthetic limbs, etc. Puts things in perspective for sure.

[ganulv]

I am much obliged to everyone for sharing your knowledge. Anyone interested in colonial-era travel might find Paul A. W. Wallace’s essay about the travel network in 18th century Pennsylvania worthwhile; it is preliminary to a later book.

Kearny's Army of the West averaged about 20 miles a day on the trek from Fort Leavenworth to Bent's fort.

This figure might bear some scrutiny. Surely anyone given the opportunity to leave Fort Leavenworth behind them would do so at a faster clip.

[Granite_State]

Standard US Marine requirement is a battalion to move 24 miles in eight hours with field marching pack, flak jacket, helmet, T/O weapon...approximately 55- 60 lbs and no ammo. Many foot sore Marines the next day...

Agreed. I'd be curious to see what percentage of our combat arms units (even infantry) would be able to conduct ongoing, high-intensity combat operations after covering 20-30 miles a day on foot for a couple weeks. I strongly suspect it would be a much lower percentage than in armies of a century ago, due to lack of real acclimatization/foot hardening.

Based on two weeks training with Royal Marines, I will say they do a lot more of that than we do, at least during entry-level training. And Patrick Hennessey's book mentions how all Sandhurst cadets conduct Exercise Long Reach, a 36 hour, 80 km march over hilly terrain.