I spied this Grey variant of Eagle Industries’ Jungle Body Armor Vest at Enforce Tac earlier this month in Germany.
It’s made from a laser cut, hydrophobic material and fits SAPi, ESAPI, SPEAR/BALCS and Swimmer Cut front and rear plates along with MBAV cut sift armor inserts as well as positive Bouyancy flotation inserts, all in sizes Small – XLarge.
When you get up close to the Vest, the material looks like suede. At the front and rear are Velcro strips for attachment of ID. Inside, there are removable ventilation pads. The skeletal cummerbund is PALS compatible, both inside and out. The cummerbund retention flap is removable, incorporates mag pouches and is also PALs compatible at the front. Additionally, there are quick attachment points for chest rigs. At the shoulders are hydration/comms loops. At the rear, an integral drag handle.
Below, you can see some of the family of pouches available for use with the JBAV.
The JBAV is also offered in Black and Coyote.
Tags: Eagle Industries
“Silent Fabric”, nice nice 🙂
From distance it was looking like some suede vest.
Yeah, it does.
Jungle body armor? I’ll store it with my jungle snowshoes.
Yup. This should have been filed under: WTF Moments
IMO a good starting point for jungle armor would be to look at how ventilated backpacks are constructed. Make that work on the front and back and you have something that might be sustainable over time.
The industry at the moment seems caught up on the idea that hydrophobic = jungle. While not necessarily wrong, I’d consider ventilation the key factor to success.
I’d say they already did a pretty good job in that area if you look at the spacer mesh pontoons they’ve built inside: https://www.entrygear.com/product.asp?id=EAG-PC-JBAV
Except that spacer mesh holds water.
Well your original point was about ventilation, so I was just highlighting the air flow features that are built in to the JBAV via the pontoon style construction inside the front and back plate bags. I’ve no affiliation or loyalty to Eagle.
Is there a tactical mesh fabric on the market that doesn’t hold water? I’ve not encountered one so I’d be interested to see it, sounds like an impressive engineering feat to create one. I’ve checked out various Maritime specific plate carriage solutions from FirstSpear and they still use those same materials as the JBAV, materials that dry/wick pretty rapidly.
Spacer mesh holds water simply because of it’s 3 layer construction (face – filament (what makes the space) – backer). Even if you use 100% hydrophobic yarns, there is still room for water in a spacer construction.
What I’m thinking about is along the lines of what is being used in some (civie) packs. It’s a single layer mesh suspended from the backpack itself, giving room for airflow. Like these: http://sectionhiker.com/the-history-of-ventilated-backpack-frames/
Now imagine the same principal applied to a plate/armor carrier.
Moving the entire load that much further away from the body presents its own set of problems. Personally I think the massively thick spacer mesh route is the way to go for now.
I think there’s some IP on that.
I used a Crye Airlite during training in Honduras and it worked rather well. More airflow against the body would be wondeful as you state, but I really can’t see anything better at the moment.
I have plenty of old, good Eagle gear, but this looks hot. BUT- I’ve never worn it, so I don’t know. I’m sure Eagle has done their research.
Looks VERY promising. I could totally see this working.
Ive seen airmesh with outer mesh layer covered with something like PU glue. The fibers wouldnt absorb water, it feels like plastic. So its like saran insoles, there can be water inside between the strings, but it will run or evaporate fast
Being wet in the jungle is a non point, anyone who thinks you aren’t going to be sweating like a blind lesbian in a fish shop within a few hours under canopy is deluded. Everything you wear will be wet, there is no way around that. Plate carriers have their role in the Jungle but people need to get over the mentality of wearing armour 24/7. You put plates on when you are doing a deliberate attack and you know people are highly likely to start shooting at you. The rest of the time being silent, sneaky and slow is going to do a hell of a lot more to keep you alive than wearing plates.
Also those pads on the plate carrier look to be to thick, its going to mess with your pack straps and you’ll spend too much time doing the hunched shoulder shrug to get your straps sitting comfortable and not enough time looking at your arcs of responsibility.
People have forgotten individual movement techniques, using cover, what the prone is, and marksmanship. The jungle will remind them.