Jacksonville, Fla. – Safariland, a recognized leader in the tactical armor market, today announced the release of the PROTECH® Tactical Shift 360™ Scalable Plate Rack System as its first platform to encompass the FirstSpear® Tubes™ closure system.
Utilizing advanced technologies from industry-leading armor brands, PROTECH Tactical and FirstSpear, the Shift 360 plate rack is a high-speed carrier system representing PROTECH Tactical’s fastest and most dynamic scalable plate rack offering. The system starts as a basic plate rack carrier with the ability to transition into a fully loaded tactical system for a multitude of mission specifications.
FirstSpear Tubes modernize the armor carrier closure system, enhancing the ease of donning and doffing the Shift 360 carrier with a quick up or down single hand function. The simple motion for attaching or detaching the system capitalizes on the user’s muscle memory, ideal for stressful or high-speed scenarios. This lightweight closure system ensures the cummerbund is always positioned in the same location, which is vital for proper ballistic coverage, and mitigates the risk of misalignment and incorrect attachment.
“The Shift 360 meets the requirements of patrol and tactical law enforcement officers who need to transition from routine activities to high-threat situations in a matter of seconds,” said Director of Tactical Armor Brian Santimauro. “Facing increased occurrences of scenarios evolving into active shooter, hostage or terrorist situations, law enforcement officers can have confidence that the Shift 360 will outfit them for any situation.”
“The Shift 360 system was put to the test with a variety of law enforcement teams, providing PROTECH Tactical with vital feedback to make it one of the most sought after scalable plate racks on the market,” added Santimauro. Beyond the FirstSpear technology, the Shift 360 plate rack incorporates other recently updated design elements, which elevate the functionality of the system, such as a cummerbund attachment, ballistics insertions and reinforced support. The Shift 360 AWS is available with all three closure system options – FirstSpear Tubes, single-point Quick-Release, and Velcro® closure.
“Protective technology is in our name,” said Todd Mackler, vice president of Armor. “This isn’t restricted to the ballistics and hard armor components that are inserted into our carriers. It also pertains to the carriers themselves with efficient designs and detailed components that we test, evaluate and integrate into our systems.”
Safariland introduced a new a-la-carte ordering system for 2016, which allows teams and individual users to configure the Shift 360 plate rack to meet their specific needs, including a full array of ballistic and non-ballistic accessory garments. The PROTECH Tactical Shift 360 is available for ordering with Type II and IIIA ballistic packages, as well as color options based on the load-bearing configuration. Integrated FirstSpear 6/12™ Platform & Pocket Technologies and Traditional Modular Webbing are due out at the end of 2016. More information on the Shift 360 Scalable Plate Rack system is available here:
first spear changing the game. Love my tubes.
While it looks pretty cool… the tubes system is not very easy to slide together under load… and certainly not in a high stress situation… a simple side release buckle is much easier IMO
must be something wrong with you. Probably the easiest thing I have ever done compared to the velcro in a “high stress” situation. Damn thing goes on like butter every time.
Also, if shrapnel hits those plastic tubes. FRAG HAZARD. Hello???
Good call bro. My TL and ATL been talking about frag hazards since we almost have the money for all of our team to carry long guns. I like the non velcro solution like tubes since we might be getting ready to crash the door and be like “oh shit, need a flashlight” or something. Velcro would prob get us compromised! My ATL got compromised one time back in ’92 after he got back from Desert Storm. He was still dealing with PTSD and almost knifed the perp on accident.
Hey, Gecko45, how’s life?
Capitalizing on the plate carrier+ that’s become prevalent in law enforcement tactical teams. Are pistol threats no longer a concern to us or what? Don’t need to be an immobile turtle like the offerings five years ago but we also aren’t doing daily foot patrols thru the Tora Bora’s either.
The Mechanix Wear ad that’s behind this post is a great example. Is that appropriate coverage for the common CONUS threat encountered? Looks cool tho.
Kev I suggest you write Protech quickly before they make any further “mistakes” and tell them how they should have designed it. Nice job Protech for incorporating great innovations into the LE side of PPE. It’s long overdue.
Cute. I don’t recall alleging Protect made any mistakes, they’re just capitalizing on yours.
For the dudes that recognize that cops are killed by way more handguns than rifles CONUS they introduced the Fast Attack Vest.
But hey if you die of sepsis at least you looked cool.
Excellent work making me have a palpitation over the thought that FirstSpear/PROTECH would have anything to do with First Tactical (the wording of the headline).
Definitely made me read the whole article, slowly. Good Job!