When I first started airsofting, out in Hong Kong, I initially used the base minimum of kit – an AEG, a few magazines, some surplus DPM clothing from over here. The bit of kit I wanted most was some webbing, but the problem with finding webbing in HK was two-fold; firstly the small number of troops out there meant that there was little surplus kit about, and secondly there were few shops selling it. I eventually bought some Grade 1 Olive Green ’58 pattern webbing, which included the yoke, belt, two ammo pouches, two water bottle pouches and the kidney packs. When I returned to the UK and rekindled my interest in Airsoft I bought an OG PLCE webbing set, however soon after I saw an advert in Combat & Survival for a set of DPM PLCE webbing for £50 (in 1998), so I took the plunge and sold off the OG Kit. But first some background, PLCE (Personal Load Carry Equipment) webbing, is the standard issue webbing for all arms personnel in the UK. Designed to replace the aging and outdates ’58 pattern webbing with a more modern, modular system. ’58 pattern webbing was made from canvas, a very durable and rot resistant material. The problem with it is that is soaks up water and becomes very heavy when wet, and takes ages to dry. Also the ’58 pattern webbing is not very modular; it can’t be tailored to specific missions. Developed in the 1980’s PLCE webbing made its first widespread media appearance in the Gulf War in 1991. Initial Overview I ordered my PLCE webbing with an extra utility pouch in place of the respirator pouch – simply because I knew (or hoped) that biological or chemical agents are never used in airsoft so a respirator is redundant. The pouches, belt and vest are all made from the same tough tactical grade nylon, with a DPM pattern printed or dyed onto them. The kit came with a yoke, waist belt, 2 magazine pouches, 2 utility pouches and a water bottle pouch. The belt is straight forward, simply a very rigid nylon belt with slots in it with a very chunky Quick Release (QR) buckle. The vest is similarly simple, in that it’s a rough Y-shape with padded shoulders, a mesh back panel and 6 attachment straps, no D-Rings on it anywhere.
The magazine pouches hold 6 magazines each in 2 separate compartments. Each compartment has its own lid and 2 nylon separators – to silence the noise the magazines make when the knock into each other. So the webbing is capable of holding 12 magazines in its basic form – far more than most people need in a skirmish (unless you are using standards), I used one compartment on the right hand pouch for battery storage. One word here the mag pouches are designed to hold SA80 magazines which are nearly identical to M16 magazines. So the mag pouches are can only carry magazines designed for 5.56 (M16, FAMAS, G36, AUG, SIG, plus 250 rd AK). You might get away with MP5 magazines but they would not be secure, G3 magazines might also fit but you would be limited on the number you could carry. Each pouch has 2 metal loops on the top to secure the yoke to. The utility pouches are designed to hold all other things, a mess tin (plus boil in a bag meal with spoon) and a hexamine stove. The pouch is has a small internal divider, behind which there is enough space for the stove. This is the big pouch, and where I will put most of kit (scrim net, maintenance kit etc…). Each utility pouch has 2 metal D-rings, for the attachment of the yoke.
The waterbottle pouches actually hold more than the utility pouches, and have a waterproof lining/finish internally. These are meant to hold a ’58 pattern plastic waterbottle. There is a small pocket in the lid of the pouch for water purification tablets – but since clean water is usually abundant at skirmish sites I won’t need them. All the pouches are held closed by a combination of buckle fastener and Velcro. The Velcro is the quick an easy options, e.g. when you need to close a pouch quickly in a firefight - each lid has a Velcro panel, and each pouch as an opposite Velcro strip. When silent opening/closing is required there is a silencing strip of Velcro sown into the pouch that can be folded over the front to disable Velcro. Other than this the standard method of closure is a rather fiddly buckle system. Fitting When setting up the webbing kit I first started with the belt. The PLCE belt has loops of the inner side, these are to allow you to firstly adjust the belt to your girth, and secondly for the insertion of the tabs on some of the pouches. I adjusted the belt for my waist (32” at the time). I then decided on the layout of the belt order, from left to right it goes; Ammo, Water bottle, Utility, Water Bottle, Ammo. I fitting my belt order back to front, basically I stated with the Utility pouch at the back to ensure symmetry. The pouches in the PLCE kit have 2 methods of fitting to the belt. Ammo pouched and the utility pouches are fastened to the belt by a combination of tabs, Velcro and pop fasteners. Each pouch has tabs, which are designed to fit in the slots on the belt. On the pouches I received there were a mixture of polymer and metal tabs. Each pouch has 2 tabs to attach to the belt, once these are inserted into the belt the slots are covered over by a flap on the pouch which is fastened at the opposite side of the belt with Velcro and pop fasteners. Water bottle pouches are fastened to the belt, by the same flap found on the ammo pouches. This is again secured by Velcro and pop fasteners. Once the pouches are secured to the belt you attach the yoke to the belt. The yoke has 6 straps on it, 2 for the front, 2 for the back and 2 for the sides. I started with the Utility pouch at the back. First I passed webbing tapes through two metal loops on to top of the pouch. The webbing is held in place by ladder-lock fasteners. I then fastened the each of the front webbing tapes to a metal loop on each ammo pouch. The 2 side tapes are also fastened to the ammo pouches, but to metal loops on the opposite side of the pouch. This creates the vest like appearance of the webbing kit, and is designed to increase weight distribution and stability on the webbing. To aid the stability each of the pouches have a small webbing loop in the back. These loops are there to allow for a webbing strap to be run along the length the pouches and bind them together to reduce the ‘bounce commonly associated with webbing. Additionally each pouch has another loop on each side of it, this is designed to accommodate a bungee to be run on outside of the webbing to further increase stability and to aid camouflage. Modularity This is the greatest feature of the PLCE kit, it is highly modular – individual pouches can be swapped out and replaced with a more suitable one, depending on the mission. For example if I were in a support gunner’s role and I wanted pouches for the linked ammo. I could swap the 2 front ammo pouches for utility pouches and the whole set will still work, because the utility pouches have the loops for the front webbing straps. The PLCE kit includes several other pouches including; RPG, Respirator, Single Ammo, Entrenching tool and Radio pouches and a pistol holster. That said the PLCE’s modularity is very much limited to PLCE pouches. You can use other tactical products such as drop leg holsters or drop leg ammo pouches with the webbing since these accessories require the inner side of the let to have Velcro to fasten to. Wearability The PLCE kit is designed to be more like a vest – spreading the weight of the load on the belt more evenly across your body. After wearing my PLCE webbing kit for over 2 years I found it to be very uncomfortable. Often after a day of skirmishing I would return with sore shoulders, a sore neck and muscle spasms in the small of my back. The problem areas with the webbing are two fold. Firstly my main problem is that the fasteners on the base of the back of the vest come undone during combat, allowing the belt to sag downwards and forcing your muscles to compensate more. Secondly the belt has no padding, and as such cuts into your waist during prolonged use – this is the problem with using rigid nylon as a base material. The wedding is designed to be more like a vest in the way it distributes load – but it fails in that regard. Before buying the webbing I read one of Mr McNabs books, where he stated that troopers (come to think about it any soldier) like to keep his front clear of pouches, so that going prone is more comfortable and getting to magazines is easy. I found this tough to achieve, without loosing one of the utility pouches and the storage capacity it provided. I would always have part of each magazine pouch near my front and for lean and fit soldiers I imagine this is a similar problem. Overall access to magazine pouches is easy, but the separator panels in the pouch makes putting empty ones back in difficult in a tight spot. Getting kit out and back in the larger utility and water bottle pouch was easier due to the large openings, although the catches to close all the pouches are far to fiddly to use in my opinion – perhaps a QR buckle and a draw string closure to prevent kit spilling out? The dreaded ‘pouch bounce’ was often evident, even though I tightened up the belt, bungee and utility strap behind the webbing – but it was minimally compared to other webbing kit I have seen. Conclusion I have used the PLCE 95 webbing for just about every weekend over a 2 year period. The PLCE webbing has been through a lot of rough abuse and has come out the other side looking almost as new as the day I bought it. It is very robust; the heavy gauge nylon has stood up to the abuse I have put the webbing through. When wet the Webbing’s weight does not increase significantly due to the nature of the nylon material. As for load distribution, this is the PLCE systems major weakness. Despite attempting to make the webbing more vest like in its load distribution qualities, it does not succeed. During my use of the PLCE webbing I reckon the maximum amount of kit I put in the webbing was abound about 20 pounds, and considering CEFO standard is usually about 30 pounds, my webbing was lighter than the usual UK squadies would be. Yet the problems were still very apparent. Too much pressure is exerted upon too narrow an area over the shoulders making it uncomfortable during prolonged use. The other major comfort problem is that the waist belt can cut into your waist. This latter can be solved by using what’s known as ‘Hippo Pads’ that are available from companies such as Arktis, Wyvern and SASS, these essentially pad out the waist belt and reduce the cutting/rubbing the waist belts cause. The DPM pattern of the webbing itself blends in very nicely with ‘90 and ’95 pattern DPM clothing, so much so when I had a picture taken with it on in the field it was very difficult to pick it out from my smock. If you run a bungee along the outside of the pouches you can add additional foliage to the webbing set to enhance camouflage. The problem with ALL armed forces kit at the end of the day is that someone, the tax payer has to pay for it, and in the days of shrinking defence budgets the average pound does not go as far as it used too. So sacrifices are made. What I am happy to say is that quality has not been sacrificed, the PLCE ’95 webbing kit will last, the nylon construction is top quality and should last in harsh battlefield conditions. For the £50 I paid for the webbing set it was, at the time, money well spent. The durability of the kit and its flexibility in carrying loads meant that everything was to hand during a skirmish. That said I did have to add a US FFD pouch for my radio. A good buy, and recommended for first time skirmishers or those looking to upgrade from the 58’ pattern kit. UPDATE Since writing the review I sold off my webbing set, after I found a better alternative. The Eagle Tac vest series. Despite the good points of the PLCE webbing I found that I would comeback from a skirmish with major back pain because of the belt sag. After much deliberation I bought an Eagle Tac vest – and have to say that it’s the business. No back problems what-so ever. So perhaps older, or more experienced players might look for a tactical vest instead of classic webbing – the Royal Marines have switched from the 95 pattern webbing to the Arktis RM vest. If the pro’s have done it then there could be a point to be taken! But if money is a factor, the PLCE is the way forward, since the Eagle vest costs twice as much and is far less modular and carries less kit. by Permian External
Links: Site links: TBA Comment on this review in the forums Last modified: Monday, March 10, 2003 2:33 PM Copyright 2003 ArniesAirsoft
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