All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment

The ALICE (All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment) load bearing system, was adopted as United States Army Standard A on 17 January 1973 to replace the M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment (LCE) and M-1967 Modernized Load-Carrying Equipment (MLCE). Although since superseded by MOLLE, ALICE gear is still in some limited use in the US Army in National Guard and training units, as well as by Navy and Air Force ground units. The US Marine Corps currently uses ALICE gear in training only.

The All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment is the end result of the LINCLOE (Lightweight Individual Clothing And Equipment) program that began in 1965 and terminated with the adoption of the ALICE system on 17 January 1973. The goal of the individual equipment portion of the LINCLOE program was to develop a lightweight load-carrying system in an effort to lighten a combat soldier's overall load.

Based principally on the conclusions and recommendations of A Study To Reduce The Load Of The Infantry Combat Soldier, 1962 and A Study To Conserve Energy Of The Combat Infantryman, 1964, the army established a Quantitative Material Requirement (QMR) in 1965 calling for the development of LINCLOE.

Although the development of the LINCLOE load-carrying equipment did not officially start until after the United States Army Materiel Command Technical Committee (AMCTC) approved the project 27 April 1966, development of lightweight load-carrying equipment really began in 1961 with the development of the Lightweight Rucksack (FSN 8465-782-3248) made of nylon fabrics and an aluminum frame which weighed 3 pounds (1.4 kg) as compared to the 7.5 pounds (3.4 kg) cotton canvas duck and steel item which it replaced.

The development of this lightweight rucksack led to an informal inquiry by officers of the infantry community as to the possibility of reducing the weight of the M-1956 Load-Carrying Equipment (LCE). As a result of this interest, the army produced a set of LCE in 1962, substituting available nylon materials for the cotton canvas duck. This set of nylon load-carrying equipment weighed slightly more than 3 pounds (1.4 kg) as opposed to 5 pounds (2.3 kg) for the cotton canvas duck items. These two items, the lightweight rucksack and the set of nylon LCE, formed the basis for that portion of the LINCLOE Quantitative Material Requirement dealing with load-carrying equipment. Annex A to the Quantitative Material Requirement set a goal of 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) for the individual load-carrying equipment and 3 pounds (1.4 kg) for the rucksack. Officials decided that the design of the new load-carrying equipment would follow that of the standard load-carrying equipment with material changes from cotton canvas duck to nylon duck and replacement of the brass and steel hardware with aluminum or plastic items.

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