May 19,2008: Soldiers go into battle with a lot of new gear, or gadgets, if you want to be snide about it. Troops also find themselves jumping in and out of vehicles a lot, and in a hurry. Thus the old backpack doesn't cut it anymore. So the U.S. Army is developing a "tactical sling bag" that, as the name implies, you can sling over your shoulder. The basic bag has about 700 cubic inches of space. But like other military packs, you can add pouches, and use the webbing to configure it many ways. The troops like that. When things are slow, you can fiddle with your pack configuration.

Medics have long been asking for a better equipment bag, and some troops have improvised sling bags in order to carry what they needed, without using the ungainly backpack. The army will continue developing and testing prototypes, and probably won't have a final design in the hands of the troops until next year.