Gear Philosophy Update
I have put up multiple gear posts in the past with suggestions and alsoinformationon how I havedoneit andhowI recommend doing it. Just scroll the previous articles to read some of them. I havebeenrunning my training courses for alittlewhile now and I have beenwatchingnumerous people go up and down the ranges with all sort ofgearset-ups. It has set me to thinking.
It is a balance of fitness and sustainability. The more youcancarry, the more sustainable you are before resupply,whetherthat be with the number ofmagazinesyou carry into a firefight or the amount ofdaysrations you can carry in a ruck. Butagain, that is a balance - youcanincrease theloadyoucarrywith greaterstrengthand fitness, but there willalwaysbecomea point when you are carrying too much, which will negatively impact on yourperformance, and ability to move, while in combat.
There is the old balance between firepower -protection- mobility. The more ammo you carry, the greater firepower that you can project, and for longer. The morearmoryouwear,the better protected you are. Butweightof firepower and weight ofprotectionwill negatively affect your mobility. If you are not mobile, you will either be ineffective in closing with the enemy, either in close combat or onapproachorwithdrawal marches, or you will just die,becauseyou wereunableto 'keep low, move fast.'
You also have to lookuponthis in the light of a realistic scenario. You cannot go out and stay in the woods forever. Youcan'tcarry enough in your ruck to last for weeks. You have to beresupplied.Thismeansthat you will have to runmissionsfrom a base that is provisioned with supplies,likearetreat, or if you areelsewherein a patrol base you may beresuppliedby alogisticschain or by theauxiliarynetwork.Youare not going to lug your 100 lb ruck everywhere and live out of it forever. This doesnotpreclude moving patrol baselocations, but it means that you have to have a way to beresupplied. Logistics.
This ties incloselywith my posts on tactical mobility. It may be that youdon'tmove out to that patrol base with a 100 lb ruck, but more like a 60 lb one and the rest of the gear is brought in bymuleor ATV, orwhatever,andbroughtto you or to a cachenearby. Or you do a heavy load carry in, or a couple of them, and thencachethe stuff at apatrolbase and operate light from there. Your 'G' Base may bereceivingresupplydrops eitherdirectlyto it or via a cache system. If you aregoingout on short term patrols, then you carry what you need and 'travel light,freezeat night.'
This does nottakeaway from the need to be asphysicallyfit as possible. But you havetoberealistic Don't depend on carrying 150 lbs of gear and then find out you can't.Particularlywhen youfindyourselfmalnourishedand halfstarvedout there in the boonies post-SHTF running a guerrilla campaign. Think about apotentialtempo of oneoperationeverythirtydays, with the rest of the timegivenover to admin,preparation, survival andrecovery.
I propose that a more realistic philosophy for gear carriage is a modification of the '3 day pack' concept. Thismeansthat you willplanto carry amediumsized ruck as a patrol pack,somethingjust a little bigger than an assault pack. Itwon'thave everything in it that you need. You will 'travel light, freeze at night' - your main comfort gear will be back in a 'G' or patrol basesomewhereand may even get moved byvehicleor ATV, or pack mule.
You will be carrying rations for maybe three days (one MRE or equivalent per day),emergency/E&Erations, water/water purification, ammo, batteries, night vison/FLIR, IFAK/medical kit, spare socks, a little bit ofsnivelgear, andsomethingto sleep in, such as a woobie or light bag, plus bivvy sack. Carry a thermal poncho. Carry all the little ancillary stuff like lighters and bugrepellentand all that.
Youwantto be able to carry this with you and fight in it. You may potentially cache your patrol/assault packs at the ORP with asecuritypartypriortomovingonto the objective, but if you do you may never see them again.
eaving gear anywhere not on yourpersonis aseriousrisk SHTF,becauseyou may never see itagainand youmaynot beableto replace it. So keep it aspracticaland light as possible, so you can move with it and are nottemptedto dump it.
This leads me on to a slight redherring- that of the tiers of gear to be worn on you - tier one on your person, tier two in your load-out, tier three inyourruck etc. That is all very well and good advice. But if you areoperatingout there in the boonies as a resistance fighter, dumping your gear maymeanyou cannot survive anyway, or you maybecomeineffectiveas a fighterbecauseitcannotbe replaced. It just depends on the situation. My philosophy is to bepreparedtopotentiallydump some gear, likeuselesssnivelgear. But in the main, if youcandump it why were you carrying it? If youfindyourself breaking contact and trying to exfil, then your worst case is a sustained follow up by Regime hunter-killer forces. That ispreciselywhen you need all your gear. If there is no urban center tofadeaway into, then you are out there in the boonies. If youcan'tget away, that is the time to set a hasty ambush, get close, and fight close. Like acorneredbear.
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. You never know, if you get close theycannot hit you with indirect assets, and you may get out in the confusion, if you fight hard. Otherwise, you did what youcould Atimeto live, atimeto fight, atimeto die. Don't get me wrong, I'm notadvocatingthrowing your life away in order to keep clutchingyourcollectionof guccitacticool gear - my point is more to ask why you are out there in the first place, what yourmissionis, and if you are going to strip naked and run, or turn and fight.Thisispreciselywhy you should be operating with a load that you caneffectivelycarry and that you can shuffle-run with if necessary.
Inpreviousgear posts Ihaveshownphotos of myself wearing a full battle belt, PC, and patrol pack. There arealternateset-ups and I will cover some of that here.
Battlebelts work,particularityfordismounted light infantry style operations., They are a pain whentryingto sit invehicles, Going with the battle belt set-up isentirelylegitimateand youcancarrya goodamountofgeararoundyourbelt,particularlyif you usesuspenders/harness with it. If you wear a battle belt, youcanthrow your PC on and haveadditionalammo and ancillary pouchesattachedto that. Youcanthen wear apatrolpack.
Here is another way of doing it:
It's a bad photo, but I am wearing achestrig. It has room for 12 magazines across the belly. I have a triplepistolmagpouchon the bib. IFAK on the right side and FLIR Scout pouch on the left where Icanaccess it for scanning from the halt while patrolling. . There is a pouch in the bib for ancillary equipment and a zip behind the mag pouch into large admin pouch. I have a CamelbakArmorbak on the back. I think this is a BDStacticalrig, I've had it a few years.Becauseof how the rig impinges on my waist belt area, I am wearing my Glock in a drop leg holster.
This kind of rig is very comfortable and also works well when sitting in vehicles. It is versatile. It does not work very well with a battle belt.
Which reminds me, someone asked in a blog comment how to make the battle belt work. If you don't have a full battle belt with a padded belt and suspenders, and you want to wear additional canteens with something like the chest rig that I am wearing in the photo, then you want to use a belt only, no pad. Otherwise, you will have to tighten it so much that it is uncomfortable in order to stop the pad falling down off your hips. With a chest rig, you can use a simple web belt with a few pouches that sit on your butt, so they do not get in the way of your chest rig in the hip area. This is a way of carrying additional canteens. You can fit two canteens divided by an admin pouch on a web belt and wear it so that it does not interfere with the chest rig. You may not be able to MOLLE the pouches in place on a simple web belt but you can tie or tape them and when it is tight on your waist the canteens/pouches will not move anyway, they will sit on your lower back.
You can also wear such a set-up with a ruck, particular an ALICE pack. Where you have problems is with rucks which come down low over your butt and have waist belts. Such rucks with waist belts will still work well with a chest rig, but less well with battle belts. An ALICE ruck will sit nicely on a battle belt, with the battle belt holding some of the weight like a waist belt. If you want to spend money on something 'gucci' like a nice Kifaru medium sized ruck/assault/patrol pack, then you may have to give up on the battle belt. You can then attach canteens or bladders to the sides of the ruck, which also means it is even more important not to dump the ruck. In which case, don't carry too much in it, so you can keep it on when exfiltrating!
"But what about your Plates?" I hear you ask. Well, here is the beauty in the flexibility. Just have a clean PC with your plates in. This can be worn under your chest rig. This gives you the option of wearing a PC, or not. Also, in the event that you have to do physical labor, like dig a foxhole, while under threat of enemy fire but you don't want to wear all your gear, you can wear your PC. Set your chest rig and rifle down next to the hole, ready to throw on if necessary, but you are still protected with your plates on. If it is all attached to your PC then you have no choice - its either your PC and all your gear, or nothing.
On the protection vs. mobility debate, you need to consider, if you have something heavy like Patriot Plates, if you are going to wear them all. Side Plates? Personally, I don't own side plates. None of this is a silver bullet to not getting killed. Not to say that side plates are a bad thing, but in all of this it is a balance. If you are wearing so much gear that you can't move, then you are carrying too much weight and you are combat ineffective.
It's not whether we are going to die that is in question - just how much it's going to hurt!
You may consider patrolling covertly without wearing your PC, just wear your chest rig. Or wear front and back plates, no side plates. If you have to fight a defensive battle, or assault a place, in a raid, then maybe wear them all. But not if you can't "keep low, move fast" when wearing it all.
So to conclude this: there are various options to go for in terms of systems when setting up your gear. You have to plan for a system that will allow the components to work together (i.e. ruck, PC, belt, chest rig etc.) and allow you to operate how you want to. Don't plan to carry too much gear or wear too much weight. You need to go with what fits your strength and physical fitness, allowing you to balance firepower, mobility and protection. You can't plan to carry it all, and you can't live out there forever without resupply. So have a plan to resupply using alternate means, such as humping gear into a base, using vehicles and animals to carry it or resupply you.
No man is an island, and no more so than when conducting resistance operations. All the more reason to work on tribe, network and team.