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Just cracking some 5s and 20s⌠is it safe to come out?
Would just like to add that the RAF Regiment and The Regiment are 2 very different things.
Doesnât matter if PCS is here to stay, itâs naff, everyone thinks itâs naff. And just because the good idea fairies wanted us to be issued with it (probably because they have shares in the company) doesnât make it any less naff.
Fixed for you. Not everyone thinks its naff. The smock is far better than the old one and the shirt is a useful outer later in summer. Now, tucking in the PCS shirt - thatâs naff!
I quite like PCS.
I think the original lightweight jackets with all the velcro on the sleeves were a bit annoying, but the new ones are quite nice. The sleeves roll up very crisply.
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No. A lot of lads think itâs gash. And my opinion isnât formed from some being in camp. From arctic, to the desert, to the jungle, PCS is gash.
Untucked is gash, the chest pockets are horrendous and useless. The sleeve pockets are horrendous, the Velcro on them are horrendous, the collar is horrendous, the lower sleeve Velcro padding are gash. Everyone cuts the Velcro off, cuts the pockets off.
And in the field they try to wear other stuff. The trousers are horrendous, the thigh pockets are useless.
The smocks are terrible, the felt lined pockets that you arenât allowed to stick your hands in, when you fall over in the snow, now fill up and melt.
Same problem with the sleeve pockets, especially worn over a PCS shirt.
Bring back the old DPM cut but in MTP. Lads are still opting to wear that over PCS, in camp and in the field. Far superior.
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Try operating in it, in various environments not just a RAF camp going from the Mess to the Office.
Camp soldiers think itâs great but itâs crap. And looks horrendous.
There are branches of the military looking at ditching it, and as state above are allowing the old shirts to be worn.
You have seen second pattern right? a lot of those concerns were dealt with:
- The lower arm Velcro pockets are gone
- The handwarmer pockets on the smock had zips added so they didnât fill up with water
- The Velcro patches on the LW jacket were reinforced with extra stitching
- The badge panels were changed so that the Velcro is only on the edge, not entirely Velcro.
- The mesh on the inside of the jacket pockets was changed so that things didnât get stuck in them.
- The barrack shirt was brought back to meet the concerns out of the field.
All of those things happened YEARS ago. You need to catch up.
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Yea, considering i am still serving, I am aware. Itâs still gash.
I obviously have a MK1 smock as I did not know this. Total game changer and I will be getting my hands on one
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I modified my mark one with a lot of those things myself, then was particularly annoyed when the Mk2 came out just a few months later.
Then why are you moaning about things which arenât even a problem anymore? You just made yourself look uninformed.
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Because the points stay the same. And there are old kits still on issue.
The sleeve pockets are gash, regardless of the old Velcro or new. Pointless and worthless pain in the backside place to have pockets. Useless to use with Bergenâs, daysacks, and
Body armour.
Velcro is gash. Why does everything have Velcro on.
Other points are still valid.
Itâs not a personal opinion. I have used it everywhere and every time I would choose the old kit, based on placement of pockets, lack of Velcro and the general cut of the uniform.
Only because you have been brainwashed by years of tucking in. The uniform was never designed to be tucked in. I admit it doesnât look as smart as a tucked in barrack shirt, but I donât see the need to be âsmartâ all the time when âsmart casualâ works just as well and is more comfortable.
I remember when PCS first came in and was worn untucked. All the âold sweatsâ were moaning about how it was âuntidyâ and âAmericanâ (they can get stuff right occassionally!) and us younger lot just got on with it and considered everything fine. Iron in properly and wear the right size and it looks smart. Some people just canât stand change.
Top tip: chop the fleece out out of the smock, sew up the opening, and stitch the fleece into the front pockets.
Much more ergonomic than the down, and then sideways thing with the design.
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It looks horrendous. And itâs terrible kit anyway.
As I have and will continue to say the points above. PCS is terrible, not just my opinion but the opinion of a lot of people that have actually used it, and prefer the old style. A lot of people working in the jungle are even trying to retain the old DPM shirts as they were better for Cam and concealment than MTP.
Those choices were all deliberate. The removal of the buttons was to stop pressure points under body armour, you then need the Velcro to close the pockets. The arm pockets were added in because you canât access chest pockets when wearing body armour.
I donât mind the arm pockets, I use them quite often when operating in the field as I find sternum straps get in the way of the chest pockets. I can see how they can be annoying with shoulder straps if you over-fill them, but itâs down to personal preference.
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Lots of people may dislike it, but lots of people also like PCS just fine. Is it the best kit for everything? No. New flash: CS95 wasnât the best kit for everything either, and not everyone liked it.
I donât particularly care what people in the jungle are using. I am not in the jungle and have no wish to go to one.
I will admit to not liking the PCS smockâs hood though. It is more of an annoyance to me. They also existed on the later CS95 smocks though.
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Yea I know why. But I never had, nor did I meet anyone who had a problem with the buttons. With osprey or virtus, maybe some Officer on some camp somewhere got a slight irritation on the way to the mess sometime.
And if you did, you wouldnât use the pockets. So why not just use a UBACS, ditch the PCS shirt and keep the old shirt. Issue people the UBACs for body armour, and the old style shirt for everything else.
The Velcro is loudmin environments where you donât need BA. The PCS shirts were horrendous in the jungle for the Velcro, the pockets and the double layering affecting the heat loss from the body.
I had the forethought to take old shirts(and I always dodged the new issued stuff for as long as i could) but lads were desperate to go back to the old shirts.
The UBACS lacked any decent pockets to be worn in the jungle, so lads sewed on their own compass pockets. The shirt pockets you canât access when wearing bodyarmour.
The general cut of the PCS Is terrible, and the trousers pockets at that ridiculous angle and smaller, wraps around the thigh making it harder to access anything from it.
Yea, camp soldiers and people that donât have to work in it. So why issue it to them? If you have no use or desire to use the kit properly then why use it at all. Or why have an opinion against it.
CS95 wasnât the best bit but it was a damn sight better than PCS! I would pick it hands down over PCS any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The hoods were fine but manufactured incorrectly and you would have to roll them up properly and use some spare elastic to fasten it up properly. But again it had those stupid toggles on. Everything seems over engineered, with bells and whistles and stuff we donât need, and then they slap on some more Velcro for good measure.
Kit should be basic and functional, I donât care what they wear in Call of Duty, or whatever film or how Gucci it looks.
We can argue this all night though. I wonât be moved from my stance. And Iâve used it in a lot more places than a flat RAF base where you can dive in the mess when thereâs a light drizzle.
Itâs not all itâs cracked up to be, it doesnât look that great and it doesnât function that well at all. Itâs not the bees knees.
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NMFP FellaâŚ
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