Meet Antaeus, Arc’teryx’ would-be update to the Marine Corps doomed ILBE program. Antaeus was a baddass, skull-collecting giant whose strength came from his contact with the ground. He was eventually killed by Hercules, who figured out all he had to do was hold him up in the air and bearhug him to death. We’re guessing the pack’s name doesn’t resonate with the Air Force.

While the pack was stillborn and not in production, it’s still a fine pack that may find favor with a limited group of users in a commercial release. Arcteryx is showing it off in the hope that the odd SF unit, contractor or foreign military might express enough interest to bring the pack to market.

Background:

The ILBE was a militarized version of Arc’teryx’s alpine pack, the Bora. The Marine Corp signed with Propper to sew the packs under license from Arc’teryx. It had an alpine suspension system that never worked well with body armor. The Marines took the elegant alpine pack and bolted on a rocket carrier setup, portage handles and an assault pack. The Frankenpack was born. During the next six years, Marines fought through numb arms and confusing strap layout on a pack that was unsuccessfully adapted for military use.

The Marine Corps set about finding a replacement for ILBE last year. Pack designers, including the incumbent Arc’teryx, spun up and showed their wares to the Corps in January 2010. MARCORSYSCOM didn’t see anything they liked and gave up trying to find a commercially available replacement. In October, in a fit of irony, the Marines issued a sources sought notice for help building a pack of thier own design”based on the Army’s MOLLE pack.”

So, everyone that submitted designs to the Corps was now left holding their prototypes, sketch pads and development costs to date. Many of the other packs submitted for the Marine industry day were either off-the-shelf products or redesigns of existing products. Arc’teryx, though had to go from 0 to 96.6 km/h (they are Canadian) since they had the ILBE as their starting point. They went through a series of designs and ended up developing the Antaeus even as the Marines were deciding to turn away from a commercially available solution.

The Pack:

On the suspension side, the bird put a lot of work into making the pack work with body armor. They invested heavily in a 3D sculpted back panel system that cradles the back armor plate to steady the pack. They also reengineered the shoulder straps to spread the load further over the shoulder and chest.

From the bag side, the Antaeus looks to be based partly on Arc’teryx’s top of the line Altra pack. While the materials are more heavy duty, the 75L main bag size, alpine inspired shape, 12L removable top, are all the same. That U-shaped zipper at the bottom allows access to buried equipment without having to go through the spindrift top. They’ve added a 35L removable assault pack and a bit of PALS webbing on the outside in just the right places.

The pack is a looker, but 8.5lbs for the main pack and 5lbs for the assault pack a bit heavy. And, the taller, Altra-ish, profile means helmet clearance could be an issue– especially when in the prone. For now, the Antaeus is not available for sale except for the few T&E articles that sneak onto eBay. If you manage to snap one up, let us know what you think!