For any soldier, it is not the strategy and tactics of the battle that is much more important, but his own stomach. A hungry army will not be able to resist the enemy, and the supply of food is no less important than weapons - this was understood by the ancient commanders. In the 21st century, innovations appeared in this difficult business …
For a long time, servicemen in Russia took care of their own food. It is enough to remember the tale "Porridge from the ax" to understand what ingenuity and resourcefulness a soldier had to possess in order not to remain hungry. In military campaigns, the soldier relied only on himself, bought food and feed for horses at his own salary. They went to war with their supplies - breadcrumbs, cereals, bacon …
They also cooked for themselves on their own, and there were not always conditions for this. In addition, supplies quickly ran out, and there was often no opportunity to purchase food. As a result, soldiers were starving, sick, and at times dying of malnutrition.
Significant changes in the supply of food to the army were introduced by Peter I. He established a "dacha of provisions" - flour and cereals and "welding" - money allowance for the purchase of meat, salt and vegetables. But the food was prepared in the same way by the soldiers themselves, and there were not always conditions for this.
As time went on, more and more attention was paid to the nutrition of soldiers, field kitchens, army chefs, approved daily allowances appeared. Although it was previously argued that the food in the tsarist army was simply awful, in fact this is not the case.
The diet of a Russian soldier in 1914 consisted of three parts: provisions issued directly by food, welding and tea money. A little more than a kilogram of bread (sometimes crackers or flour) and 200 g of cereals were given out as provisions. Welding money was used to buy meat, vegetables, pepper, bacon, oil. For teahouses - tea and sugar. During wartime, the norms of allowance doubled. Cooks prepared food for a whole company, and at least once a day, even in harsh field conditions, the soldiers received hot food.
After the revolution, there was a serious confusion in army food, no food was supplied centrally, but then the daily allowance of soldiers was again approved. Since September 1941, the daily ration of a soldier of combat units was: bread - 900 g, cereals - 140 g, meat - 150, fish - 100, 500 g of potatoes, 170 g of cabbage. In addition, the soldiers were entitled to tea, sugar, carrots, beets, onions, herbs, cucumbers, peppers, bay leaves, etc.
Naturally, most of the food was not handed out, and the food was prepared by the cooks. The food ration varied depending on the affiliation of the troops - the food ration of the pilots was much better. They received milk, dried fruits, condensed milk, and canned food. In addition, at each flight, the pilots had a food supply for each person: 3 cans of condensed milk, 3 cans of stew, 800 g of biscuits, 300 g of chocolate and 400 g of sugar.
Kosher ration
The principles of feeding the American army were initially different from the Russian ones. In the United States, food rations have always been much richer than Russian ones. Even during the civil war of 1861-1865. the soldiers' diet included almost half a kilogram of crackers, about a kilogram of bread or flour, 200 g of lard, more than half a kilogram of meat, as well as beans, rice, crackers, coffee, sugar …
True, the army of the southerners-kofederats was supplied much worse, the soldiers were starving and were practically incapable of fighting. Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind" vividly described the situation of starving soldiers and their suffering from dysentery: suffered from this disease, or just recovered from it."
But the war is over, the United States and its army have changed. The food of the soldiers was and is still receiving a lot of attention. A soldier is obliged to receive a sufficient amount of meat, oil, fish, bread, vegetables, eggs, and, in addition, fruits, juices, chocolate, confectionery, and even ice cream …
The food is set on a grand scale, and the soldiers sometimes disgustedly refuse to eat burnt toast or too fatty eggs. But at the same time, research and improvement of the nutritional system are constantly underway. Over the past few years, the range of dry rations in the United States has doubled - there are 24 items in it. This takes into account the interests of vegetarians, Jews and Muslims who do not eat certain products.
To the soldiers who served in the Soviet army, such dietary norms seem exotic - everyone knows that ordinary conscripts sometimes did not see meat or eggs for months, eating exclusively frozen potatoes or barley porridge. But this was mainly due to theft at all levels, because the food standards for a soldier in the USSR were also pretty decent. Every day the soldier was supposed to: 750 g of bread, 120 g of cereals, 40 g of pasta, 200 g of meat, 120 g of fish, 20 g of animal fats, 20 g of vegetable oil, 4 eggs, 70 g of sugar, 20 g of salt, 900 g of potatoes and vegetables, 30 g of jelly or dried fruits.
These days, army officials argue that the poor nutrition of soldiers is a thing of the past. Instead of fat, it is now supposed to cook in oil, barley is replaced with buckwheat, rice and pasta. There should be meat or fish on the table every day. In addition, soldiers are required to take a multivitamin once a day. In the near future, it is planned to revise the rations, as a result of which the soldiers will receive juices, sweets, sausage and cheese, although this is fraught with financial difficulties.
Piss for breakfast
While the Russian army is looking for money to buy sausages for soldiers, the United States is concerned about researching the supply of the military. Recently, they developed a special freeze-dried food for difficult hiking conditions in hot countries. The peculiarity of this food is that it can be diluted with dirty water or … with your own urine. The main goal of the development was to lighten the weight of the soldiers' equipment, in which water takes up a very large place. Now it is enough to carry bags of dry mixes, which are then filled with liquid and turned into a completely edible chicken and rice lunch. These bags are filters that keep out almost 100% of bacteria and chemicals. The liquid passes through the shell - thin layers of cellulose-based plastic, the gaps in which are no more than 0.5 nanometers and reaches the dry mixture almost sterile.
According to representatives of the US Army, this invention will reduce the weight of the daily food supply for the military from 3.5 kg to 400 g!
A week without food
But inventors are ready to go even further. In the United States, work is underway on the consciousness of a completely new technology for feeding soldiers. It is called the "system of subcutaneous transport of nutrients." The essence of this technology is to provide a soldier with food in conditions where it is impossible to arrange a field kitchen. According to the inventors, they are working on a mechanism that injects all the nutrients directly into the blood.
According to preliminary data, the 21st century ration will look like a small device attached to a fighter's skin. This device is equipped with a microcomputer that monitors the physical condition of the soldier. It calculates the metabolic characteristics of its host and determines the optimal dose of nutrients.
In addition, it is possible that drugs will be introduced to trick a soldier's stomach to avoid hunger cramps. The mechanism for introducing "food" into the body is still being developed - either nutrients will enter through the skin pores, or directly into the blood. The developers claim that the "feeding" will go on continuously. If the experiments are successful, then it is planned to equip the soldiers with this invention by 2024.
But there is another development in the United States related to feeding the army … Its essence is to "teach" soldiers to do without food at all! For this, studies of metabolic processes at the level of cells are being carried out and the processes of its slowing down and changes are being clarified. The Metabolic Domination project aims to prevent soldiers from eating for five to six days without feeling hungry and tired … delicious food prepared in the field kitchen by a skilled chef …
