I think it must have been.
I’m fairly certain that these had been issued to the ACF, rather than bought in.
The ammo pouches were indeed god awful.
The whole thing was just an obviously cheap copy of the military issue-type assault vests.
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Does it actually say viper in the PAM? That’s a brand name? Is it not a south African vest?
The assault vest point is interesting, and I can see the point for ranges, but for fieldcraft we’ll stick with webbing. AFAIK you need either Pattern '58 or PLCE to teach the webbing lesson on the ATC FT syllabus. I’ve been told cadets and CFAV can wear other webbing sets (commercial ‘airborne’ types, though I’m not a fan, and Osprey/Molle on a battle belt) as long as FFP, but the lesson’s based on PLCE. You can’t actually do the different orders of kit with a vest alone!
That is a verbatim copy/paste
Some Officer has blatantly got shares in Viper then.
It is not the same as the south african vest. One was trialed for the cadet training vest but was rejected. I’m not 100% sure that the cadet training vest is actually made by viper either, they just get called that even by the MOD.
Either way, the MOD themselves have admitted that it is crap and not fit for purpose.
Wow, it must be bad then!
It is currently on the mk4 version. It isn’t as bad as it used to be. As a skill at arms instructor I really do dislike having cadets wearing it in lessons though. It takes so long for them to use the ammo pouches. Give me a molle belt and an osprey ammo pouch any day.
The funny thing is we were never even issued the vest. We were issued the old army assault vests and getting magazines in and out is even harder.
Why not?
Belt order - just the vest
CEFO - vest with daysack
CEMO - vest with bergan
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I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. They are terrible.
PLCE is quite literally the most versitle, robust and useful set of kit. Except if your drives for obvious reasons.
I have had a set follow me through every single different type of environment and it’s still going strong. The comfiest and easiest load carrying kit. It’s a shame they aren’t just doing it in MTP.
They do make MTP PLCE, but it’s still faily rare.
It’s not the most versatile; the MOLLE system is inherently mote versatile. I don’t know why they don’t just revise the PLCE kit to use a MOLLE attachment system to a decent, padded belt though and then you’d get the best of both worlds and plenty of versatility.
Versatile for what, you put your stuff in. You use it.
Your not going to start chopping and changing when the rounds are going down.
No, but you may want to before that happens.
If nothing else, the forces would only have to issue one set of pouches for both belt kit and the Osprey.
The osprey ammo pouches are easier to use than the PLCE ones. What on earth do you have against them?
Given how cheap osprey pouches are, the amount of pouch options available and how it is far easier adjusting the pouches on a molle system to the plce system, I cannot for the life of me think why anyone would choose plce, unless they were given it for free!
We went for PLCE for a number of reasons:
- we had a few bits of it lying around
- it’s cheap
- other local units use it so we can share kit around for exercises
That said I have an Osprey set and I do like it. I’m not a fan of loading bergens etc with extra pouches but being able to hook on a water bottle carrier or something simple like the knife/torch pouch is very useful. Unfortunately the issue yoke is a bit gash unless your webbing is lightly loaded.
You should already have a magazine on. And you will have a bandolier of ammunition. Hand over a bandolier if you want to be sneaky beaky.
Any changing of ammo scales should be done miles before getting close enough to an Enemy Position to hear Velcro.
It’s like having a pink soap dish. If the enemy are close enough to see my pink soap dish. Then my priorities shouldn’t be having a wash.
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You haven’t seen the state of the kit when it comes back. MOLLE is cheap and not as rugged. The belt always sags with weight in, it always ends up lopsided, and there’s none with a decent hippo pad.
PLCE is literally indestructible. I have seen the metal buckles snap before any of it. And it’s easy to backup with para cord.
The PLCE yolk is far better and comfortable too.
Granted the PLCE mag pouches are gash. But swap them out for some “airborne” pouches. Job done.
I had a MOLLE belt that barely survived a year, my PLCE survived training, operations, Jungle, everywhere and still has life in it. It’s got some mileage in it!
Those are issues with specific bits of kit, not the system as designed though.
Ultimately it’s all made from tough nylon and stitched together; how well any system holds together is down to how good the materials and assembly is.
And it looks crap, people only want it for the “Gucci” factor.
I have had a personal molle belt that has survived for several years, as have the ones my detachment has. Since that is the use it is for, it is fine, and the ease of use outweighs any loss of durability. After all, a tank is more rugged than my Freelander, but I know which one I want to drive to work in.
As for looks, I think the molle sets we have look better than plce, but I don’t see it as that imporant anyway. Webbing is webbing. As long as it isn’t 58 it looks good to me. 