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Archive for 2011

Hill People Gear Mountain Serapes

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Although Hill People Gear continues to tease us with tidbits of info about their Mountain Serape, it looks like there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Mountain Serape is based on the tried and true poncho design but HPG has added a hood, drawstring, and unique (patent pending) zipper arrangement that turns it into a greatcoat or a half zip sleeping bag. Designed to be thrown on in cold weather when you stop moving or when lying up, it can also be used as a warmer weather sleeping bag or in conjunction with a bag to increase its range. Additionally, this is a great product for survival use or for conditions where packing light is a necessity.

Weighing in at only 34 ounces, it features a DWR coated mini ripstop face fabric with 2.4oz primaloft fusion insulation. The Mountain Serape is available for pre-order in Foliage or Coyote.

www.hillpeoplegear.com

Tags: Hill People Gear
Posted in Shelter | 1 Comment »

Ted Talks – Stanley McChrystal

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

GEN Stanley McChrystal address TED in early 2011. He speaks quite frankly about how he adapted his leadership style based on fighting the war on terror.

Tags: Stanley McChrystal
Posted in Admin | 2 Comments »

New From Ferro Concepts

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Canada-based Ferro Concepts has introduced a simple single point sling that uses a t-bar to mount directly to a vest’s MOLLE field. On the business end, it features an HK-style clip to attach to the weapon. The LW-MOPS MOLLE One Point Sling is available in a variety of patterns.

Also, free shipping for Military in North America. To qualify, you must email from your .mil account and or send a scan of your ID. Both must match shipping address names.

ferroconcepts.blogspot.com

Tags: Canada, Ferro Concepts
Posted in MOLLE, weapons | 7 Comments »

Costa Launches Full Website

Monday, December 12th, 2011

As we reported last month, Chris Costa has established his own school and now there is a fully featured website to tell you all about it.

Chis Costa explains his training philosophy on the site:

“Costa Ludus conducts training for the game of life, where the knowledge and skills learned in training may one day translate over to the streets or battlefield, determining life or death. We train others with the understanding that life is bigger than us. We understand the sacrifices that others make on a daily basis for our freedoms â€“ that is why we take training so seriously.”

The site does a great job of going over the various courses offered by Costa Ludus and offers a training schedule allowing you to register directly for each training iteration. Another handy feature is that the schedule offers links directly to host venues for course registrations not handled by Costa.

However, one of the most interesting sections of the website is entitled “Syndicate.” It covers the firearms and gear that Chris relies on and many fans will pour over this page looking for the items they have seen him use in classes.

Finally, they’ve got some pretty cool shirts in both long and short sleeve versions.

Overall, it’s a great looking site and certainly worth your time to explore, so head on over.

www.costaludus.com

Tags: Chris Costa, Costa Ludus
Posted in Industry, Training | 4 Comments »

And Then They Were Known As Academi

Monday, December 12th, 2011

The company formerly known as Blackwater has once again changed its name. Prior to selling the company to its current owners, Erik Prince changed the name to the innocuous “Xe.” The point was to adopt a low profile name that didn’t stand for anything in particular in order to help soften public opinion of the company. It didn’t work.

The history of names used by Blackwater is monumental – Blackwater aka Blackwater USA aka Blackwater Worldwide aka Xe (services) aka US Training Center. There are a couple of other entities that are affiliated with Blackwater as well, like Paravant and Greystone.

But, the new owners have been working hard behind the scenes to change the lineup in the firm and how it does business. Their bid at a name change comes only after a lot of internal hard work. This new name is intended to signal to the world that this isn’t the same old Blackwater.

In a statement to CNN, CEO Ted Wright said, “The message here is not that we’re changing the name. The message is that we’re changing the company, and the name just reflects those changes. We have new owners, a new board of directors, a new management team, new location, new attitude on governance, new openness, new strategy – it’s a whole new company.”

Their latest name? Academi.

Tags: Academi, Blackwater, Xe
Posted in Industry | 6 Comments »

Fractals And What They Mean To You

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Why are fractals important? Because Leonardo Da Vinci realized that the components of trees are fractions of the whole. Each part of a tree is a smaller copy of what came before it. For example, as a tree grows, the new new growth is a fraction of what it grew from such as branches from a main trunk. If there are two they will each be half the size of the trunk, if there are three, each will be one-third the size. Apply this same concept to other vegetation and you begin to see how it can be applied for military use.

Because fractals are so common in nature, they have become the next big thing for camouflage. How it works is that a natural shape is combined with itself over and over to make bigger versions of the same shape. By extension, since it is a natural shape, it should fool perception. In many cases the colors will change, but not the basic geometry. You could (and people desperately have) make an argument that the recent pixelated camouflage rage is fractal based but the square isn’t exactly something you regularly run across in nature. Since the Army should be announcing the down selects for their Camouflage Improvement Effort soon, we can’t wait to see if any of the patterns are truly fractal in nature (and if the military’s fascination with patterns of squares has finally run its course).

Posted in Camo | 9 Comments »

Tactical Beard Owners Club

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Facebook members who like to shoot guns and sport awesome facial hair take heart. There is finally a group for you. The Tactical Beard Owners Club is an invite only group but it is THE place to be if you a rocking a beard. Although many members are German, most communications are in English. They’ve even developed their first run of commemorative patches with different versions for different beard colors.

From the group:
“The “Tactical Beard”: No matter if it is “Face Kevlar” or a “Combat Beard”, a beard seperates boys from men: the more testosterone the more beard will grow and the more he puts up in a fight. True men let grow their beard to let the dust from foreign countries settle in it. A man with beard will be respected by his battle buddies and will be feared by his enemies.“

Tags: Facebook, Tactical Beard Owners Club
Posted in Morale | 7 Comments »

ATS Tactical at SOMA

Monday, December 12th, 2011

ATS Tactical is on hand at this week’s Special Operations Medical Association annual conference. Here is a pic of their booth from their Facebook page. They’ve been doing quite a bit of new medical kit so if you’re on hand stop by and check it out.

Here is a little better look at the kit arrayed across the hood of the ATV courtesy of the AAC Blog.

www.atstacticalgear.com

Tags: ATS Tactical, SOMA
Posted in Industry, Medical | 3 Comments »