There's also a political dimension to this problem. Senior leadership can't justify to the American public the necessities of taking risks when the public doesn't understand the trade-offs involved in combat related decisions. What will be reported are the casualty statistics and the 'scandal' of that the administration did not properly equip soldiers to fight. The solution it seems would be to keep pursuing lighter equipment - though that doesn't address the problem Bill mentioned of adding more equipment to fall that gap.