I can't help but think that this is a flawed strategy.
1. Destroying your soldiers is not particularly smart.
2. I don't care who you are, you cannot move as fast, nor as far, carrying 100 lbs as 50 lbs.
3. Chronic exhaustion has many side effects. They wonder why the suicide rate is so high without explanation? They wonder why there is so much PTSD? They wonder why our veterans end up hooked on drugs and homeless, unable to carry on relationships?
The body is NOT designed to do this, and will break down under this strain. Of course, military guys will never admit it.
just from my 1983 German military experience:
on #1 - this was a draft situation. New soldiers every 15 months - they could care less about us as long as the gear lasted a few generations.
on #2 - we were facing nuclear overkill, and were trained to stop an invading enemy. Even though I was in the "fast moving" paratroopers, all our mobility was by vehicle or chopper. Gear was only carried over long distances to make the superiors happy and able to brag that their boys were tougher than the regular army grunts. 80km hikes without significant breaks were not unkommon (50 miles). Thing is - there never was really any perception in the German military that we would ever see any real action without being vaporized within minutes anyway, so the motivation to be good at any of this was rather limited to showing off in front of other army divisions.
on #3 - not sure, but we had some seriously high drug abuse to get through some of the longer multi-day exercises. But at least in our siutation, there was an end date in sight and you were counting down every day until you were out. The thing I recall the most was sleep deprivation, not the weight of packs or gear. Skiing with a 50 pound machine gun tripod strapped to your silly canvas backpack, no safety bindings, total whiteout and orders to go into the unknown... those were the days I knew I was not going to stay and become an officer in thi scrazy outift as my superiors were constantly pushing me to do (I think partly because I could read maps better than anyone else in the entire batallion
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