Why this prototype combat rig could help Army soldiers fight a possible war with China

If I’m fighting in the jungle, I want something different than if I’m fighting in Alaska or if I’m fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. This is a product of fighting in in the Middle East. They were going to fobs refitting and they were going out to fight. So you only had to worry about carrying your stuff. You needed to fight, right? But now, especially in the jungle environment, we don’t have that luxury and you have to sustain yourself and move long distances and then continue to fight. The purpose I think of this is to kind of bridge that gap between sustainability and fighting. I’m First Lieutenant Zachary Calderon, First Platoon, Platoon Leader, Charlie Rock Cacti and I’m about to introduce you guys to the jungle rig that I’m testing out optimized for jungle operations. So obviously we’re not in a jungle environment right now. We’re in currently in Pahukolua training area, although it’s known as PTA or the the Big Island of Hawaii. But this rig is applicable for not just a jungle environment, but basically any environment we fight in. OK, so from from top to bottom, yeah, the harness itself, which is made of super lightweight material. Same thing with these straps, like I said, six point adjustable harness drop extenders. You know when you need to put your rock on something, I really like about it because you can take all these clips off too. So like these clips right here, I could take all these clips off and I can just make it a belt overall. Like the theme is like modularity and customization. And that’s I think super important because like I said, you never know which invite we’re going to fight in. Like a couple days ago we were in the jungle and Oahu and now we’re on the Big Island and basically you know, an open desert I guess. And again left to right, double mag pouches generally put Mags in there. They have these bungee corsets to kind of tighten it down. So I if I want to use a flaps, I can use a flaps. If I don’t want to use a flaps, it’s got a, you know a bungee stay right here. Just a tourniquet on the outside that I have ready to go again my adjustable nod pouch. You can fit like a one liter analogy in there and a one liter analogy water bottle and then I have my giant sustainment pouch again. It’s like a a status card, laminate status card signaling IR chem lights, my leaders book with a little tie down strap, my leaders book. It’s basically just a notebook that I used to plan. In my notebook I have some what’s called bump cards for helicopters for air assaulting or anything like that. And these are used just to basically tell, you know, have the cereals for all my sensitive items and whatnot and then I have some protractors map markers and then I have some overlays, some map overlays. So generally when we plan, I don’t write on the map ever. I’ll just write on these overlays and then I’ll put that over top my map and kind of have like my you know mission graphics on these instead of my map itself. We bought as a battalion, we bought some stuff from this company, Esotech included like 249 pouches, dump pouches, sling, just various various different things. And one of the guys that works up at S4, the lieutenants up there, which is like the logistics cell of our battalion, he reached out to the CEOCEO, got back to him and and wanted to build some like jungle specific rigs and equipment. My buddy buddy Chris, who’s up at S4, he hit me up and was like, hey, you know, would you mind testing this out with your platoon? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, I’d love to do that. You know, I took my platoon out, we all went out and did like a quick ambush and kind of started that relationship. And then since then we’ve just been going back and forth with with gear and testing different things out. Have my map, nothing fancy. I usually just put in a zip lock bag and this this map is just currently all of our AO that we’re operating in right now. And then I’ve got face paint because you need face paint VS 17 signaling panel. Yeah, so that’s basically everything in my sustainment pouch. So I’m moving over. I have my eye FAC, it’s a rip top, rip open top. This particular one isn’t Sotech, but it’s the same exact design or pretty pretty close to the design that he has. Got some gauze here. More gauze or I got some bandages, gauze tape, chest seals, some combat gauze and Israeli pressure bandage and some some Npas. I usually I like to keep my tourniquets on the outside. That’s why I have it right here just so I can have like super easy access. Have the canteen pouch, the adjustable canteen pouch. I made this bungee like corset go around it so it cinched down to my radio and then rounded it out just two more two more mags. So I had the capacity to carry 8 mags total. And as APL or platoon leader, like I don’t need I I don’t need 8 magazines, so I usually just dish those out to my guys. If I’m fighting in the jungle, I want something different than if I’m fighting in Alaska or if I’m fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. We have Sergeant Liotta, one of the most badass Ncos in Charlie Rock. And honestly, the battalion really, he’s rocking the standard issued taps. You know what taps Tactical assault panel that pretty much most of the Army is issued. So there’s six dedicated mag pouches built into it, all Velcro. And then there’s two at the very end, which are meant for radios or more magazines if you want. It’s got Molly, row 3, three Level 3 rows of Molly on the front of it. He’s got his standard IFAC upside down so it’s a lot easier to access for him or anyone else who needs to use it. This pouch is actually one of the SO tech pouches, the adjustable ones he’s rocking. It’s got like a split Y harness on the back of it, so 3 buckles here and then a fixed buckle here. He’s also rocking a a gun belt and most of our dudes are wearing gun belts but none of those are are issued. Unfortunately on his gun belt he has most of his mags change. Double mag pouches Velcro, a dump pouch for magazines or anything he finds in the battlefield that he’s he deemed as like important for for for Intel. And then this is the standard issued canteen pouch he’s got here. Most dudes rock their night vision devices in the in the pouches and that’s pretty much it. The big difference is the level of outflow you have for for air, right? So for heat to escape, right. So on this all the heats like trapped right here, especially when he’s got it fully loaded down with you know full combat load, right. Whereas me, like I have nothing here, so all the weight is pretty much on his shoulders, right? And for me it’s the same way my weight’s on my shoulders, but I can easily adjust this to sit in my waist when I’m not wearing a rucksack or whatever it is. As far as ease of access goes, I have 8 mags right here, basically right here on the at my front, left and right. Super easy access, no matter what hand, I can carry A lot more on this and still move faster. You’ll have a lot more points of adjustment. So I can like tailor this. Since I said six points of adjustment, I can tailor this to, you know to whatever I’m doing right with this once you adjust it and then correct if I’m wrong. Most guys just like once they adjust it, it stays that way because it’s it’s a pain to like readjust right with this. The cool thing about it is like I have these extenders, so I adjust it to sit the way I want it to when I’m fighting, You know, when I just have this rig on and not like a rucksack or something. And then when I’m rocking, all I have to do is hit these adjustments and you know, I’m good to go. It’s like a quick adjust kind of thing. This is an evolution of itself. So before this you had the flick, the fighting fighting load carrier I believe and it’s basically just a vest and that had even less ability to adapt, right. This is a product of fighting in in the Middle East is because they were fighting, they were going to fobs refitting and they were going out to fight. So you only had to worry about carrying your stuff, you needed to fight right. But now especially in the jungle environment, we don’t have that luxury where we’re operating out of fobs and we have you know strong support from from battalion or brigade or whatever it is and you have to sustain yourself and move long distances and then continue to fight right. So this so I think of this is to kind of bridge that gap between sustainability and fighting. And I think with this you don’t really you don’t really get that as much. It’s good for what it was meant to do. You can take, you can detach this these two straps and you can hook into a plate carrier. But then again, like I said, you’re just carrying more weight and you have to modify your rig again, where as opposed to this, you can just if you wanted to throw your plate carrier on and you’re good to go, you’re good to fight, you have everything right here. So I think this is a step in the, the right direction, honestly. In in terms of the jungle environment, yeah, I mean I like it. I like it a lot in the jungle environment. And I’ve noticed when I’m actually moving, moving through the jungle, I I don’t sweat nearly as much as I did with my old rig and my gun belt. And with this thing, I can kind of kind of do it all, you know, I can so super easy take off, rip this off half the times. I don’t even need to wear this. This is just for to keep it kind of close together and then unbuckle this and I can just dawn it off. It’s super easy. So I mean that’s something also I didn’t really talk about earlier. But if I’m doing like combat water survival stuff, I mean this thing is incredibly easy to take off. It’s just one one belt buckle away, you know, swim out of it. And I’m, I’m out of my out of my rig. So if there’s gear out there, you know that that allows guys and girls to move faster, move longer distances, then why not. Yeah, I think overall I think it’s good for a really good step in the right direction for jungle operations.