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First Spear is showing us two homegrown technologies that are showcased on versions of their Siege and forthcoming StrandHogg armor carrier systems. 6/12 and Tubes could really shake things up considering how these innovations combine to significantly reduce weight and complexity of armor carriers.
6/12 is the evolution of PALS/MOLLE. The system is comprised of two parts; the base platform, which I'll call the female side and the pouches attachment system, which we'll call the male side.
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The 6/12 platform replaces the array of horizontal webbing sewn to a vest with a grid of laser cut slots through both the face fabric and the fuzzy Velcro laminated to its back face. The spacing is identical to a PALS field, so you can still lash your legacy PALS accessories to the 6/12 base. There are at least three benefits to this system, the first being weight reduction in the range of 20-40% over legacy LBE systems (depending on the application) and the second being easier fabrication. While the former will be an immediate benefit to the end user, the latter is an industrial benefit that may contribute to a price reduction, or the adoption more features and higher quality in other parts of the system thanks to lower production costs. The third benefit is how easy it is to run/hide comm wires for snag free movement.
The second part of the system, the male side, is found on the back of First Spear's new line of 6/12 light weight pouches. The single, threaded strap is replaced by a series of lobster tail shaped Velcro tabs that are inserted through the face of the slotted grid and secured on the backside by pressing them against the fuzzy backing laminated to the nylon face fabric. Each tab has fuzzy Velcro on it's back to capture the overlapping tabs of its neighboring tabs. This creates a pretty solid connection between pouch and backing without any of the pain-in-the-ass threading associated with PALS.
About the only complication of the 6/12 system comes with having to pull your plate and get your hands up inside the plate pocket. I don't really see that as an issue because it's common practice to pull plates from a MOLLE system to make it easier to thread PALS tabs, anyway.
So that's 6/12. It's a highly adaptable way to erect a layout of load bearing pouches without the weight and difficulty of PALS. I am interested to get my hands on a set to see just how strong that slotted laminate platform fabric is. First Spear tells me the haven't seen any problems with the slots tearing as the pockets are pulled during testing, but they haven't ruled out adding some kind of reinforcement, perhaps bar tacking between slots, for increased durability.
Tubes is quick detach system that replaces Velcro flap cummerbunds and crazy strap deployed wire-based armor cutaway systems with a simple rod-and-sleeve based design. One side is a reinforced nylon rod sewn to the garment, and the other side is a tube sewn to the mating side of the garment. To join the parts, simply slide the rod into the tube from either end. A notch in the center of the rod is captured by a levered arm on the tube. To release, just pull a toggle attached to the tube and the rod can pass freely through the tube.
First Spear is making Tubes in two lengths, 2 inch and 4 inch, to work as shoulder and waist attachment points respectively.
It takes ten times longer to explain it than it does to get it by watching, so have a look at the included video from First Spear and you'll get it. The benefits are reduced reliance on large swatches of Velcro to keep your cummerbund closed. Anyone that has used this arrangement knows that after a while, Velcro loses its closing strength and you end up getting smacked in the face by a magazine-laden shingle of fabric during highly dynamic movement.
Another benefit is how quickly armor carriers can be reassembled after an emergency doff. It's a common complaint that single pull systems are time consuming to reassemble and this leads to less effective training.
It's fast and simple, but I'm curious if people and organizations will write it off as as not being a true cutaway system because all four connections aren't released from a single-pull. I'm also going to look at how the 2 inch Tubes feel against the shoulder, especially when shooting. It seems like a big, hard horizontal bar laying across the collar bone would interfere with a rifle's shoulder-stock weld. My last reservation is about the pull tabs. The system they are showing has 550 cord pulls just hanging out. I'm interested to see if those can be pulled by accident and cause an inadvertent doffing. Covers of some kind may be in order, provided they can be added without hampering the quick release capability.
First Spear is showing 6/12 and Tubes at their range day event today, so look for a followup report tonight that may answer some of my questions.
