At last week’s Military Mountain and Cold Weather Symposium I had an opportunity to check out several creations from Natick’s Load Carriage Prototype Lab. One of those items was a much needed facelift for the Individual First Aid Kit pouch which was rushed into service not long after Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
The current issue item is a modified SAW ammo pouch and it really isn’t well executed for what it needs to do. It’s kind of like attaching a brick to the armor vest. PM Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment’s Rich Landry worked with the Army’s medical community to determine the latest and greatest contents list and then set about redesigning the pouch. One big change is that the Soldier is now issued two Combat Application Tourniquets so the new insert accommodates that.
The biggest change is the pouch’s basic shape. It is now a horizontal envelope-style with PALS webbing along its face and openings on either end to accept the insert. I was able to try the pouch out and it is easy to access the insert and restage. The insert is still attached to the pouch via an elastic coil bungee which can be detached via Velcro if needed. Both ends of the insert feature pull loops so it can be deployed left or right depending on the preference of the Soldier and mounting location. Additionally, its flat format allow it to be mounted on the lower back or under other pouches on either side of the cummerbund.
In a Natick press release, Landry commented, “We designed it literally about three or four months ago, the medical community said, ‘Awesome idea. Let’s move out with it.’ Overwhelmingly, they thought this was a huge improvement over the current IFAK.”
Unfortunately, I’m not sure when it will become a general issue item but recent testing at Ft Polk was very promising.
SOTech developed a similar pouch in 2010 based on the contents of the SOF IFAK. It completed testing and was released for sale late last year.
Tags: Natick, Rich Landry
Very much needed improvement over the other IFAK.
i have over 10 pockets on my uniform that can hold just the right amount of medical items in the right locations. Why do i need a pouch that has them all in one spot? and take up valuable real estate? oh and adds weight to the overly weighted down IBA?
soon everyone will be wearing a full med pack, at least I can carry a space blanket for myself on cold nights and on the off chance i creep into shock after being hit by an IED. we need to make everything we carry dual and triple roll and stop carrying so much extra crap.
Let me take some time to vent. I was recently heading out the back forty to check on some training when I saw a platoon of troops fresh back from a rotation ruck marching out to their range . I stopped and asked what their load was. It was full load like talking upwards of 80lbs a piece not counting weapons. anyway I asked what they were doing and they were doing a non tactical force march to their range 12 miles out. then back the next day. made me think for a second. Football players only wear pads and hit once a week, then do shorts and tee truing the rest of the week with a 4 hour game. and their bodies are being destroyed. So what makes us think we are doing our guys a favor by weighting them down on every possibility calling it environmental training “getting them used to the way they will be in Afghanistan”. Thats crap all we are doing is beating down a dead horse and killing the bodies of our soldiers then asking them to up the tempo and go 150% for 12 months over seas.
I don’t know if you ask me its time for a doctrine change, we keep looking at all this new equipment to carry the load or offset it and nobody is thinking hey in vietnam our soldiers were 40-50 lbs lighter and look at the hardships they are having, I am dreading 15-20 years from now when all the vets are crippled from an over burden of weight.
ok I’m done now
It would be interesting to see how many actual field guys develop severe knee, ankle and back problems as a result of being overloaded for years. I imagine somebody is doing a study like that.
I’m a medic in the army. They do keep track of it, every battalion and brigade has a DNBI (Disease Non Battle Injuries) report. And supposedly they developed PRT off of the results of several years of Army wide DNBI reports. However I will admit that doing a forced Ruck is pretty stupid cause what does that really teach you about deploying, absolutely nothing, it teaches you to walk really fast and you end up looking at the ground hating life instead of watching your sectors. When you should be doing patrol Rucks in full kit cause that’s what your gonna do down range.
Just issue the HSGI IFAK pouch and be done with it! It’s economical and holds all you need and more – Natick needs to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
@ Tom –
I’m with you 100% brother.
My last loadout (sniper) weighed over 55KG, and that was without friggin armor! I had to go days in the mountains with it. When I did add the armor it went to over 65KG, that was 76% of my body weight! Now my back is a total mess (shrunken discs, muscles in constant pain, etc) and I have an injury to my ankle and I can’t run anymore.
Of course, the army denies any of this was their fault and I can’t even get any medical assistance (physical therapy, etc) from them.
I really hope this goes mainstream army issue.
I really hope this goes mainstream army issue.
First, the TQ doesnt belong in a pouch-it belongs center line or accessible instantly with either hand. A good medic issues more than 1 TQ per guy
Second, why is there no chest seals, or quick-clot? All I see is a 4″ izzy, compressed gauze,tape,gloves and a [most likely] 30Fr NPA. Why no 14 ga chest dart either. I know as SOF we have a better,more comprehensive kit, but all soldiers should have what I mentioned, and with the TQ out, all that shit will fit in a much,MUCH smaller pouch.
It seems the pouches get bigger but the contents stay the same. All the money they spend,when there are companies making top of the line pouches already…with a shrinking budget, is it really smart to fund stupid shit like this when a COTS solution is available,and available NOW, for cheaper than all the time, money and R&D that went into this and similar gear??
Dare I dabble in the subject of fraud waste and abuse. Ok back in the 50’s thru the 80’s. Yea NATICK was needed to do development. Today they are obsolete. There is no reason to have a government agency to come with ideas, just people to research and test them. The money wasted on government trying to make something whether it be a pouch, a pack, camo, or a gun is astronomical. Cut that out of the funding and do like SOF, do COTs and GOTs then develop these items at a user level not the obsolete level.
I don’t know about Everyone else but I’m still fuming at the fact my tax dollars went into developing UCP, and now were letting the government develop a new pattern that’s in the running.
Sorry about the blast but look at the med pouch, there are 150 variants of med pouches all over and most of them can be found from sponsors of this page. Why did that guy have to make what he made. There’s nothing revolutionary about it. It’s not cutting edge or new materials. Stop wasting your time and suck up your pride and by something COTs. Now!
Yet another example of why Natick needs to go away.
These are the same people who claim to have built the first 7.62 ammo feed backpack (TYR? SEALs in Vietnam?), declare years of study and millions of dollars are required to further study/improve wool clothing (Smartool, Darn Tough have been around for years), announced that they have concluded after much study that “maybe soldiers should eat and intake caffiene during missions to improve their performance” (Hammer. Since the late ’80s).
As the previous posters have observed: look at what SOF uses, wait 5-10 years, and then buy those same items for the conventional forces. (While SOF has already moved on)
Seems to be what Natick does……
does Natick not know that the Tk should be out side of a pouch? as others have already said, it should be OUT! im not a rocket scientist, but two newspaper rubberbands hold my Tk on my chest rig just fine. and those cost what, maybe 2 cents a piece… just saying. everything else(necessary) for me to carry fits in a small 5″x4″ pouch. takes up little room, and is always at the ready. natick IMHO should be disbanded and the funds they receive be sent elsewhere, like the VA hospitals or something.
It’s not Natick’s doing, it’s AMEDD. Natick developed a really cool CAT pouch that can be mounted on MOLLE vertically or horizontally or on a first line belt if needed. The medical community directed that the tourniquets belong inside the pouch.
ahh i see. i just looked those CAT pouches up and they are pretty nifty.
i would like to redirect my previous statement about natcik, in a more positive way then. i always assumed that they just made really expensive stuff that was not as useful as advertised. but i see now that they have some neat things on the market.
The thing that gets me is the blatant copying that PEO does. I’m surprised there hasn’t been an actual copyright infringement lawsuit by any of these companies. This isn’t the only product that PEO has developed, that’s been out for years.
Anyone remember the Tyr Tactical Ammo Backpack? PEO developed the same thing and claimed it was their brilliant idea.
Tyr didn’t claim any IP on the MICO.