Today, Beyond Clothing has announced their System Builder. Essentially, it allows you to build a kit based on actual requirements derived from environmental, or temperature/activity range. Something like this has been needed for quite awhile. The concept came from the original training manual that PM SOF created for the PCU kit.
Go on over and check it out.
www.beyondclothing.com/collections/system-builder
Tags: Beyond Clothing
Alternatively one could use military judgement. My confidence would be shaken in any leader who used this.
Stuart, I fully agree, the military judgement of small unit leadership is always important. The challenge is that most military leaders have little to no experience at -40 degrees F with limited Met (activity) output for extended durations. For that matter, most of the current military leaders have very little cold weather experience due to the current training POI’s and theaters of activity around the globe. As well, almost no leader truly understands the physiological variability within their unit as it pertains to each individual. Put simply, some people are built for the cold and others are not. The Axios system, like the PCU system, certifies environmental protection and pairs it with a training/use guide that was developed by US Special Operations Command using specific algorithms and validated in the field. In fact, US SOF revalidated this capability within the last 4 months in extended cold weather use trials. Given this, I would recommend small unit leaders use this guide as exactly that—a guide. One that has been validated over 10 years of use in every extreme environment on the globe. Thanks much, Rick Elder
Excellent, thoughtful response.
If “military judgment” was the answer, we wouldn’t find instances where troops are issued higher-capability clothing, only to get into sleep systems at low temps without understanding the adage of “comfortably cool”, wear base layers UNDER skivvy shirts, or wear the completely wrong layer while trying to stay dry under a range of climatic conditions.
As a reference guide, the concept is spot on. If someone were to say, “well them provide better training,” I’d ask them to generate a reference. Well, here it is.