Showers are a once-a-week treat at the Korengal Outpost, so soldiers make due on the in-between days with stuff like this. It’s a huge 2-by-4-foot baby wipe.

 

Blue Force Gear DAP Covert Insert

Available now, $30

The DAP Covert Insert drops into a briefcase style bag and instantly makes it a fully configurable tactical go-bag using BFG’s line of “dapper” Velcro backed inserts. Choose from mag holders, pistol holsters, admin sleeves and lots of other attachments to make your own covert carry system that suits your mission. The insert replaces most 15″ laptop sleeves and folds up to measure about 15.5 X 11″ X 3″.

London Bridge Trading LBT-6142 Kangaroo Kit

Available now, $52.50

LBT showed us their new line of hydration sleeves and we were most impressed with the little guy in the family. The 27 oz Kangaroo Kit adds straps to the side of a vest and holds enough water for a short mission while keeping it cool using reflective thermal insulation. The kit includes the 27 oz Source hydration sleeve and insulated hose. It’s available in UCP, AOR-1, coyote, tan and green, though you might have to send an email to get the part numbers for those colors. Their specs:

• #2 Grommet in the bottom of the pouch for drainage
• Berry Amendment (DFAR 252.225-7012) compliant
• 5”L x 2”W x 8”H

Eagle Industries had this yet-to-be-named assault pack Yote Assault Pack half-heartedly hidden in their booth. The pack was built to spec for a special customer, but Eagle realized that this one would have some wider appeal with it’s flexible and compartmental setup.

The beaver tail holds snivel gear or a helmet, while the other 6 pockets are good for MREs, mags, maps, batteries, etc… Just take a minute and listen to Stormy Stormes from Eagle show you all the nooks and crannies. Available first quarter of 2009 for about $150.

BAE Systems has developed a great way to power future warrior systems by adding a battery pack to the back of an  X-SAPI plate. The Power Pack is getting spiraled out of their Integrated Warrior System (IWS) program and could provide power for tech laden operator’s current kit before it sees duty as part of Ground Soldier System or Land Warrior.

At it’s heart is a 480 watt/hour dry-cell, thin-film array that adds 2.5 lbs to the plate. Taking a hit may knock out a portion of the battery, but not the whole thing. And, if you missed that, they are DRY. No acid is going to eat through you or the steel decks of the research facility on LV-426, Ripley.

Brunton’s new Solo “Personal Power Plants” can keep you gadgets running for days on a single charge. Just plug it in for a few hours to fill it up, then plug your iPod in using the USB port, insert toothpicks in your eyelids and watch all of the Star Wars movies, twice, without interruption (except for Jar-jar).

The Solo 3.4 is a little smaller than a pack of smokes, weighs about as much and comes with an array of adapters that should get the most popular gadgets in on the marathon for about $60. It charged up my Blackberry in about 40 minutes.  It has two bigger brothers, the Solo 7.5 and 15, that add, size, weight and power for $200 and $400, respectively.

Revision took a look at the state of affairs with goggle strap technology and decided that something had to be done. Soldiers know that the NOD mount always gets in the way when they lift them on to their helmets. The PDQ Goggle Retention System snaps onto a set of Revision Desert Locust goggles, replacing the stock strap with a short set of hook & loop extensions that mate to a helmet mounted halo that provides a secure mounting point that is isolated from the head. The halo consists of an elastic strap with gripper strips on the back and a rubber O-ring that mates with the NOD mount.

The kits are available now for $39 retail, $24 unit buy in black, tan, foliage and coyote.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Surefire doesn’t’ make cheap stuff. This thing is going to cost you about as much as your first car. Unless your first car was a rusted-out, VW Rabbit with 200k miles and a rack and pinion that worked best on right turns. If that was the case, then this light will cost more than your first car.

The good news is that the light allows identification of objects up to 1km away, useful for border or maritime work. The Arclight uses arc light technology, usually found in stadium lighting, to make a light that puts out 1600-2800 lumens for about an hour using 16 CR123a batts or an integrated rechargeable battery, respectively.

The HID lamp has no filament to break, matching the durability of the hard-anodized aluminum body nicely. The three pound light is about the size of a double D cell flashlight with an ‘80 VW Rabbit CV joint boot on the front. It will be available in the middle of 2009. Expect a soul-searing 5000 lumen version, the Arclight 3, to follow once Surefire’s engineers regain use of their melted retinas.

One of the best feelings I get while reporting gear news is when I get something that is so new that the product manager says they haven’t even named it yet. I stopped by Gore and found out about a yet-to-be-named fire resistant material they are using to give FR qualities to traditionally flammable fabrics. Basically, you add this material to your average hardshell, softshell or fleece and you get a FR and water resistant outerlayer without affecting the qualities of the outer fabric. Adding taped seams will bring the jacket up to full Gore-Tex levels of water resistance.

Gore has designed and sumbitted their entry for the Marine Corps’ Inclement Weather Combat Shirt, above, that features the new material. Watch a video that shows how the material self-extinguishes during testing. On the left is a standard Marine Corps issue Dessert Combat Jacket, on the right is a version that incorporates Gore’s new military fire resistant material.

Taking the two steps forward, one step back approach, our friends at Camelbak have redesigned the Motherlode, left, and the BFM, right. Thanks to the efficient, yet somehow sadistic designers, the new bags weigh less, but you can put more stuff in them. The redesign includes a shift to 500D Cordura everywhere but the bottom of the packs, new pocket layouts, fleece-lined pockets for optics, wider straps for comfort, and printed webbing so your PALS straps don’t give you away. The Motherlode gains about 450 cubes while losing about about 6 ounces, and the BFM picks up 591 cubes and drops 1.1 lbs.

Brand new this year is Camelbak’s Direct Armor Attachment System. It’s on three of their packs, the ArmorBak, left, ThermoBak, right, and the redesigned Ambush AB 500. The packs attach to the PALS webbing on your body armor using Fastex style buckle whose female side has a a split bar which just slide onto a PALS strap and stays there. You don’t have to zip-tie your Camelbak to your gear anymore. Bonus: the attachment straps run on the outside of the pack so you can cinch them tight enough to squirt water from your hydration tube. The new packs will be $55 and $70, $76 for the Ambush and should all hit AAFES by 01FEB09.

Gerber managed to make a nearly all in one cleaning tool for the M16/M4 rifle that eliminates the temptation to use those pliers on all the places you know you shouldn’t.

In a package that fits in the butt stock of an M16, the tool combines a 4 & 5 pin sight adjustment tool, a curved pick, nylon brush, flathead driver/scraper, a pin punch, and a multi-angled scraper for getting into odd nooks & crannies. All the tools lock in place, two of the tools are compatible with Otis’ line of threaded tips and the sight adjuster is held in place with a magnet that you can use to keep track of small metalic parts.

Available 1/09 for about $125 through military purchase channels.

Cadex pulled out a mean looking pocketable device that looks like it could be a part of the most wicked rail system ever, a ninja weapon, or a torture device. In reality, the mundanely named “7-Inch Hook” fills the need for a grappling hook that can be quietly placed for covert entry into buildings or compounds.

Simply snap open the device, place it, then hang a rope ladder on it with some weight so the carbide tips bite into the wall and up you go, all for about $850. To deploy it on low walls, place the aprx. 1″ post post in the barrel of a rifle and lift it into place, for structures up to 3 stories use an available lightweight Easton aluminium pole in place of the rifle barrel. Shown above open, left, closed, right.

The pack also sports removable shoulder strap padding that gives soldiers better flexibility while wearing body armor. It also rides surprisingly low for a pack this large, allowing decent helmet clearance while standing or prone. It also has an internal radio pocket, a novel hydration port arrangement, has top mounted haul loops, and a allows top or front access. $400-600 depending on accesorries.

The 9050 has been updated to the 9051SBK (bottom) and gets a larger activation button, stronger opening spring, a cleaning slot in the handle, a glass breaker in the tail, 2 add’l carry options adding tip up/down for lefties, a slightly wider blade, and an extra 1/2 oz. of heft. It’s $245.

Lifesaver Systems, the guys that brought you the water filter in a bottle have adapted the system and added a few tweaks that make filling, filtering, drinking and carrying water a fairly seamless operation. The new device is called the HydroCarry. It’s premise is that you can fill the all-in-one bladder/pouch with water from any source and be drinking in a few seconds without even taking the system off your body armor.

The carrier is made from 1000D Cordura that’s been coated to to hold water, so there’s no internal bladder. The HyrdoCarrier snaps to your PALS webbing on your back and the small handpump that charges the system can ride up front.  Other nice touches include patented technology that keeps water in the drinking tube cool, a newly designed bite valve with a built-in mister.

Bonus- Since you’re filling the bladder with nasty water that’s filtered as you drink, you don’t even have to clean the bladder. Watch the inventor, Michael Pritchard, explain the system in a couple of vids below.

Energizer displayed an update to their LED Hard Case tactical light that has cut the size of their 1st gen roughly in half. It’s sporting Energizer’s penchant for discrete control using five colored lamps, four buttons and two throw levers. The 2nd gen Hard Case, $80, is PALS friendly and runs on 1 OR 2 AA batts. You can run on 1 batt and keep a 2nd reversed in the light as a spare. The lamps are white, red, blue, green and IR (plus IFF strobe ) and all operations can be locked out with a multi-position throw lever. Available 2/09.

Energizer also put a new helmet light on the table. With a AA battery the LED Hard Case Tactical Helmet Light adds 3.5 ounces to your melon setup while giving you 35 lumens, max, of white light with blue and IR secondary LEDs. White and blue have three brightness settings controlled by successive presses of the main activator button. Throw a lever on the side to choose white/blue/IR (plus IFF strobe). The helmet mount allows the light to rotate, and the the unit comes with a secondary PALS mount for use on your chest. For $85 you also get an Energizer lithium AA battery. Also available 2/09.

Danner released a new boot that it says has been tested for 6 months by units patrolling the high altitude landscapes of Afghanistan. Danner says they had direct feedback from soldiers and Marines that their issued boots were getting trashed by the sharp rock edges while the higher cut boots were limiting their ankle articulation on the rocky terrain.

In comes the Danner Combat Hiker, a 6″, full-grain leather hiker with a rubber rand surrounding the entire lower boot offering scuff protection. Danner is making the Combat Hiker in the US so your S4 can make your whole unit’s feet happy. The boot has a Gore-Tex lining, brass hardware, and a price tag of $175.

The frame is designed so that the protected gun box is sandwiched between 2 semi-rigid frame sheets that protect your back, the gun and the contents of your ruck from each other. Your rifle can stick out of the top and bottom, if it’s that long.

Inova’s latest tac-light hits the streets this month sporting a super light, milspec 810f rated, carbon fiber frame that seems to weigh barely more than the batteries within it. The INFORCE will come in 3 versions that will be available in either a black or sand exterior. The line-up starts out with only white light, adds red, green and blue, then tops out by adding and IR LED.

The control scheme that uses the tailcap switch in concert with the rotating tailcap gives a little nod to the Night-Ops Gladius setup, but you be the judge. A pair of CR123s will keep things lit for hours, even on the highest of its 3 intensity settings. Look to pay about $100, $150 or $180, as you climb the feature ladder.

Here’s a video that shows how the controls work.

The first person that shows me they really care by reading this far back by sending me an email stating that the video isn’t here wins some schwag.

Primarily designed for the LE market, the X400 is just as comfy mounted under an M4. With it’s small size, light weight and ruggedness, the light/laser combo is as bright as most carbine weapon lights at half the size and weight.

Surefire’s upgrade to the X300 weapon light has the same 110 Lumen LED light but adds a 5mW red laser to the hard-anodized aluminum body. With included rail adapters, it can be mounted on nearly anything using the included universal and Picatinny rail adapters. Runtimes are 2.4/24 hours for the light/laser on 2 123s. Out the door late in 2008 for $435.