First Spotting of First Spear’s 6/12 and Tubes equipped Strandhogg plate carrier. Worth noting is how small the carrier looks on Chris Costa. He runs small plates because he likes the mobility the smaller package allows. If you’ve ordered one, don’t start waiting on the UPS guy just yet. This is a pre-production sample. First Spear is still getting production online and will be getting these to dealers soon.
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One of the biggest must-sees of 2012 is this piece of thermo-molded polymer that snaps around the edges of an armor plate. The rig is held in place with a system of polyurethane-coated and radio-frequency-welded straps that are tough and have no sewn stitches to fray. Its futuristic looks belie its backward compatibility with the MOLLE/PALS pouch system. Using S&S Precision’s new pouch system will afford a more stable platform. The plate carrier will be dipped in any camo pattern available and will come in two versions — “Tactical” and “LE” — the difference being the thickness of the material and resulting weight. S&S told us the tactical version is 18 ounces, but the weight of the LE version hadn’t been finalized.
Price: $381.
Available: Summer. Read More
Nine months ago we introduced you to the SKD Tactical PIG RIG. We found an immediate top three things to like about the PIG RIG, which was the internal padding, the secure fit of various sized plates, and the highly functional shoulder pads. After nine months, we still like those things, but the end comments by all persons involved in the review came down to how well it carried the plate, and how comfortable the PIG RIG is. In short, the SKD PIG RIG ranked as the best, and most comfortable dedicated plate carrier our test group had ever used.
Click the picture to find out more about the SKD PIG RIG, and why we like it so much.
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The Patrol Incident Gear Plate Carrier (PIG RIG) is one of the items that we’ve been looking forward to getting our hands on for awhile. Looking forward to it enough that we are putting up our first impressions, and will follow up later after long term use. One of the primary reasons we have been checking out the PIG RIG is that SKD has taken a basic item, and dropped in new features.
Want to know what our three initial favorite things are, as well as a list of PIG features?
Click the below picture and jump into the exciting world of the PIG RIG.
The final version of Crye’s updated Jumpable Plate Carrier has broken cover this week. You may have seen the older prototype in the darker hallways of the internet, but this is the shipping version of the plate carrier that began as one of the lightest on the market and adds three integrated rifle magazine pouches, an admin pocket that can hold three pistol magazines. They did all this and still kept the weight under 1 pound. We got a brief hands-on with the JPC and were impressed by the savvy Crye displayed in adding a few features without compromising the promise of lightweight ballistic carrier.
Crye responded to issues with the shoulder material on the prototypes by switching the original 500d laminate shoulder straps to Hypalon for durability. They also tweaked the AirLite cummerbund to include the familiar feeling flap-over closing and an integrated radio pouch. Internally, the plate pocket will take a number of ballistic plates, including swimmers plates, both with and without soft armor backing. Two-way stretch panels on the back of the plate pockets keep things snug without having to shoehorn plates into place. There is also a small mesh window at the top of each of each plate to add a little venting. The JPC will be available this fall for $269.
Mayflower Research and Consulting had a few new pieces of gear tucked away around the show. We caught sight of a new plate carrier and came to find out it was the first time their new Lightweight Plate Carrier has seen daylight. The rig with plates weighs less than 10 pounds thanks to a set of level III-equivalent special threat plates made from dark matter and ground-up dragon’s teeth.
We just heard that the Army awarded their 57,000 plate carrier contract to KDH. We aren’t sure how the lighter, better performing options were discarded in favor of KDH’s package that uses vanilla IOTV armor panels. But, we guess it had something to do with the company being located in Johnstown, PA. That’s Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, home to Rep. John Murtha chairman of House Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee and one of the not-so-mysteriously best-funded little airports in the country. It’s going to be interesting to see how a small business that is already subcontracting out the work on their existing body armor contracts is going to pull this off.
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