EVER WONDERED HOW WELL YOU COULD DO YOUR JOB CARRYING 100 POUNDS OF EQUIPMENT?

The burden actually includes body armor, helmets, canteens, weapons and other gear that soldiers strap on or tote long before they pick up their rucksacks. All told, the average weight carried by a soldier on a dismounted operation is about 100 pounds, including a 30- to 40-pound rucksack, Dean said in a Thursday telephone interview.

To anyone who’s been deployed, it’s obvious that a soldier’s gear needs to be lightened up.

And the Army is working on just that: “Future Force Warrior” will spell out what a soldier will wear and use come 2012.

The program includes “some very stringent weight-reduction goals” — shaving a soldier’s burden by 50 percent, Dean said.