Frag Out! Magazine

The most radical project was intended to completely substitute Combat Soldier 95 system (including PLCE). It was tentatively named PECOC – Personal Equipment and Common Operational Clothing – but soldiers who received elements of the new system for tests pointedly called it 'peacock'. Mental strength of Her Majesty's soldiers was also tested by an avalanche of news about novel designs, camouflages and – one after another – several variants of PLCE. The chaos was even bigger than in the early 1990-s, when the first olive PLCE prototypes were introduced. Nonetheless, it wasn't as bad as with body armour – in just a few years over a dozen designs (including test models) appeared. The flood of ideas proposed by designers endowed with overactive imagination was finally stopped by an event not unlike appearance of the Spanish Inquisition – literally cancelling the PECOC program. Suddenly in 2009 MoD announced the decision to introduce new Multi Terrain Pattern camouflage, so all uniforms and equipment had to be redesigned and adapt the British version of Multicam. PLCE mTP Issuing Osprey Assault MkIV body armour with matching battle belt and a set of PALS system pouches seemed to seal the fate of PLCE but soon the old DPM camouflaged webbing re-entered active service – especially during training and exercises when there was no need for soldiers to use superheroes style body armour. In the meantime, soldiers used battle belts with private purchased pouches produced by independent companies, and in 2013 a long-expected issue PLCE MTP reached light. The new webbing immediately won hearts of soldiers and British eBay market. The latest incarnation of PLCE doesn't differ from its DPM ancestor – it still has Spanish buckles and T-rings to stabilize pouches attached to the belt. The main difference is the change of colour scheme – olive details (like straps and fasteners) were substituted by light olive ones matching MTP camouflage – as PLCE in DPM is overly much darker than MTP model. Apart of this, the design hasn't changed significantly since 1991. CommErCiaL VErsions oF PLCE British soldiers tend to say: 'We've sent you a rescue helicopter but it crumbled into pieces. Well, it was made by WebTex'. It may be accurate somehow, since brand new WebTex products can be bought almost everywhere, but finding them in good condition among second-hand ex-military equipment is extremely difficult. Luckily, the company warns potential customers by putting its logo on every product. In case of PLCE, logo can be found on the female parts of plastic buckle fasteners and on the back of pouches. WebTex's reputation among Her Majesty's soldiers is established and makes this brand rather unpopular, however there are rumours that the quality of their products has slightly improved recently. Another company – reportedly better than WebTex – which makes their own version of PLCE is Highlander. Their main target customers are ACF cadets. Quality is good, although not equal to the issue version. The easiest way to recognize Highlander PLCE is to look at the pouches, which have black Spanish buckles instead of olive ones – and sometimes even replaced by plastic buckles. Other producers worth mentioning are HM Supplies, Wyvern, Vanguard and SASS. The latter is one of the few still making webbing with C-rings fastening system. All aforementioned companies extended the standard set by adding special pouches unavailable in issue version – like www.fragoutmag.com

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