kitmonster you should give this bloke a job. Maybe he could teach your Grandmother to suck eggs too.

This would also be a glorious first for the army.

msr

Nope I don't wear any lenses! Can't comment on what the CBRN IPT does; have only seen the GSR briefly for some integration work.

The mans right....It will be a mother of a problem to overcome. That said there is lots of new kit already on ops and also people are buying stuff that may now get issued. The issuing should be ok as it will be a planned roll out. Lets face it what ever gets issued will be modified by the user; its part of what makes us Brits. Individuals always take a piece of kit and make minor changes to it so it suits them. Remeber it will be tested on a couple of Bns so loads of snagging problems will be sorted out then. Also its been agreed that what comes out of the door is not set in stone and if the user wants a change or a manufacturer comes up with a better piece of kit it will be integrated into the system. Thats what is happening now on ops.

Looking at Ops kit and FIST as long as people get it for pre-op trg they will be ok. The staged roll out is likely to happen because of financial and manufacturing restraints but I would think that units will get the complete system in one go; so staged across the forces not by components...time will tell.

Personally I never found a great trg issue when I moved from putties to combat highs!

The biggest problem with modular kit is that someone has to decide what bit of kit gets used when and that decision is creeping down the rank structure on ops now.

When/if the project gets through Main Gate there are various groups charges with doing the trg plan, fielding plan etc. However the Front Line Commands decide how it goes out.

At the risk of reigniting the Digi Cam debate how are the trials going?

I recall your comments on a thread sometime ago regarding trials against DPM and other patterns. Any observations from those?



Edited to add: stop staring at my avatar!

Is there any way that those of us who have a particular fetish for shiny new items of kit would be able to view this PECOC roadshow as it heads off around the place?

I've sort of been on the periphery of PECOC and I've been impressed, both by the equipment they are looking at but more so by their attitude.

A few things. Firstly webbing. It has been accepted that soldiers will mess with their webbing and customise it to death. Therefore, PECOC will most probably see options for belt, vest and on-armour load carriage. The individual will get a bag of pouches - more than they need - and will set about rigging it up as they find best.

Much of the clothing is comparable with current good civi otdoors kit; think buffalo, lowe, sealskin. They are also looking at keeping labels on the kit, meaning that if it's made by a known company their label will be on it so the blokes know what it is and like to use it. Oakley eye protection, anyone? Also, as well as being functional, the blokes will have to like the kit. If it looks duff it won't be bought.

On cam. Digi isn't doing very well in trials; DPM is much better. The first to get digi were Canada. This was by accident. The first step to developing a new cam is to digitise it, before developing further. However, people saw the prototype and liked it, mainly because it looked all "starship troopers". The Yanks then jumped on the bandwagon and the rest is history. We may end up with a slightly modified DPM; same colours and patterns but perhaps a different balance of colours. There is talk of webbing being a hybrid cam which will work in both temperate and arid, so that you don't need new pouches when off to Iraq or Afghanistan.

All of this may sound like a waste of money, but when you see defence spending you'll see what a real waste is. Camouflage stops you being seen and therefore shot - a bonus I would have thought. Our current load carriage is good, but could be better; and anyone who's carried the real Infantry load on ops will know we need all the help we can. Amongst the things being looked at is a daysac that sits properly over Osprey and/or it's replacement. Surely a good thing and a development driven by need? New kit, most importantly FIST, is being developed so current loadbearing kit may not match the new requirements at all.

One advantage that the DC IPT dealing with PECOC have is the relatively low cost of manufacture and the fact that clothing is really a consumable. Struff can be fielded and then observations and lessons learned can be introduced as clothing is replaced through wear and tear. PECOC will be good. It's not a waste of defence money; not like aircraft carriers, the third tranche of Typhoon and the posh chairs in the MOD.

Oh, and the boots!! The plan is to have three or four types available and the individual chooses which ones he likes most and finds most comfortable. Tell me that's not very sensible.

A sensible idea, but what about senior officers' obsession with uniformity (to the extent that people are not allowed to wear glasses on parade, even the CSM who can't see his watch without them). Everyone will end up being forced to look uniform, even if that means the LMG and GPMG gunners wearing IW ammo pouches or the female soldiers wearing boots that don't fit.

And if we do overcome this, then we need a distinctive helmet, so that we can tell who's British, who's septic and who's Terry on ops, because everyone will look different.

Talking of ressy specs I've had the same ones for ...s*** 20 years

But whats this all about ?

www.specslab.co.uk/news.php?id=23

Bravo Zulu - I don't see where you're coming from.

CSM not allowed his specks on parade? What unit are you with?

Ref uniformity of webbing. I know of nowhere where this happens now. When I was an OC on Ops my blokes wore belt order, assault vests both issue and non-issue, old style chest rigs, stuff on their osprey, "man-bags", thigh rigs and mixes of all the above. I can honestly say that in 13 years in the Infantry I have hardly ever seen two sets of belt order the same.

Uniformity of dress in barracks, yes. But on exercise or ops? Trops, windproofs, para smocks, arctic smocks, SAS smocks, Danners, Scarpas, Lowas, Hanwags etc Again, probably no two blokes the same.

Look at film from Afghanistan. There are blokes in t-shirts, shorts, with beards etc. The helmet and weapon are the key identifiers.

At least PECOC will go some way to allowing guys choices without having to spend their own cash.

It looks like we've just been unlucky with our OC, then. Once he gets pensioned off, we'll be cooking on gas.
I would agree that this autonomy regarding dress would be a good thing for all concerned; if this can be enforced, all well and good.

Of course, if PECOC's any good, it'll have a trops-and-windproof equivalent, which everyone will end up wearing, thus providing some element of uniformity. Ironic really.

You're spot on with your PECOC info. DPM as a pattern stays, NO DIGITAL CAM. The green stuff is being made lighter so it works better in grass or scrub rather than just the forests of NW Europe. The desert stuff will be made a little darker. The much loved PLCE and bergan will stay pretty much as they are. The hybrid colouring may take a bit of time to get used to but if the scientist say it will work, it better than green kit in a desert environment.

i've seen multicam used in afghan and i reckon it works a hell of a lot better than desert DPM, i dont see what the big hang up is with changing over from brit cam is. surely how an item performs is what we should judge it on not whether it will make us look to much like yanks.

I think a lot of it is, as a Tory minister put it "change for the sake of change". The Government want to be seen to be making a difference, but put into practice, it's just throwing money at the army, and hoping that makes the world better.

How close could we copy the multicam pattern and call it British before the yanks start calling the lawyers?

Enough of what we should be doing, what are we doing?

Does anyone have piccies or links to piccies?

Before I blow my Bounty on some custom webbing, I need to know what bloody colour I'll be wearing during the next fashion season.....

(Please Gods, let it match my new eye-shadow)

Just had the PECOC team at our gaff for a demo, must say a lot of the kit is pretty good too be honest.

The road brief is basically us scoring the stuff on offer, ie kit we have now, middle of the road and money no object kit.

It's all too easy too assume that the money no object kit would be better, but in many cases it wasn't.

The new load carrying system has had a lot of input from both current ops (my god, someone listened to the blokes on the ground shock!!), as for rushing out to buy webbing l wouldnt as the new system is very good, (CW hippo so should be comfy too)

The real winner is the new osprey, lighter, thinner, more manouverable and still offering the same protection.

Obviousley its a procurement exercise too see what the blokes on the ground think, but the feedback was generally positive and all comments etc were noted by the PECOC team both good and bad.

At the end of the day, we will be issued it wether you like it or not, you cant please everyone!!

But its far better than C95, so l'm quite optimistic. And no digi cam thankfully.

EFR reporting is going to be key with it, and with a whole new 1157 inbound the R & D team will be in for some long nights l suspect!

So no buying this stuff then:
Viper Digital DPM

...looks pants anyway.

Nope no didgi, and yes it looks very websters.

Interestingly, in the tests and various photos, our euro temperate and desert camo came out on top against the US digi cam, all that is happening with our current DPM is that its being 'tweaked'.

The desert is too have a slightly darker colour added, so we dont look like ghosts on night ops. (so you wont get away with remfing it at the COB with faded dessies)

The Euro cam is be made slightly lighter, and there is also a middle of the road cam or hybrid that incorporates both cam schemes, if you will, that l suspect has been approved for various places on Herrick. The photos of it were very convincing that it does what its designed too do. I know that last statement someone is bound too ask how l saw them if the cam is that good, but you know what l mean....)

Any indication of a timescale for issue? If they're asking for opinions I think it would be a while before we see it on general issue.