FIGHTING LOAD IS A PATROL DECISION, NOT A POUCH PREFERENCE

Calculating the fighting load belongs with route selection and the PACE plan. What the patrol carries, or leaves behind, changes mobility, capability, and whether the team can finish the mission.

This is not your pouch layout. It is the universal load: what the squad has to have on it for this task.

That load is METT-TC dependent. Mission type, enemy, terrain and weather, who is actually with you, how long you have, and what the civilians will do if they see you. A water load that makes sense in the desert is dead weight in a rainforest. Support that is 45 minutes out is not support. Civil considerations can force a disguise before they force another magazine.

After the execution is planned, run the if-they-do-X game. Ordinance for the task first. Then beans, bandaids, and how far you can evade if no one is coming to get you. Ammunition is time. Time only helps if you spend it on the break in contact, not on a firefight you cannot win.

There is no formula. Experience sets the minimums. Latitude above that is how you use the people you have.

Two worked examples — an ambush where the load is a disguise problem, and a mountain recon where the load changes with the role — plus a sample team calculation, are in the TTP vault: adaptivecomtac.com/ttps.