Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/799554
unnecessary for most operations. If any of you has some ex- perience in venturing on mountain trails, you know that when climbing, even the best membranes "won't keep up" to dissi- pate moisture from your body – the user, especially one with a heavy backpack, gear, and weapon, will "boil" and lose a lot of water from his or her body. Footwear is another story – those who can afford it buy boots of reputable brands, because the provided footwear is... worthless. personal eQuipment The equipment should be compatible with the uniforms – sol- diers of mountain infantry should be equipped with light gear that they might configure depending on their current actions. For now, the standard element is belt and suspenders wz.988 called "lubawka" or "pencil box", the unsuccessful Polish copy of an American vest from the 1980s that is ordered by the Ministry of Defense in horrendously large quantities. Soldiers of 21.BSP must buy, at their own cost, the personal equipment that they are not provided with – tactical vests, chest rigs (that are more suitable to be used with large backpacks during patrol activities), or plate carriers to carry ballistic plates. As for ballistic protection, it should me that full UKO-M vests will do great during actions conducted from vehicles (by the way, mountain units will finally get KTO Rosomak), but they will be too large and too heavy to be used during patrols. The situation is similar with helmets – wz. 2005 with a deep bell with a visor, despite modernization of fastening from 3 to 4-point system, is heavy, large, and inconvenient when it comes to taking posi- tion with weapons (especially with a backpack, but I will refer to that in a moment). The announced modernization concerning replacement of strap fixing systems with adjustable pads is only a cosmetic feature – of course, the helmet will be slightly more convenient, but nothing else will change actually. Helmets will still be a weak and not very stable platform for night vision devices, while cooperation with hearing protection sets will be limited. Those problems could be solved with light ballistic hel- mets with openings at the height of ears. Backpacks The basic backpack of mountain infantry units is 987/MON so the Mountain Infantry Storage (ZPG). ZPG was developed as a mod- ification for Alpinus Woodpecker backpack that was created in the ANALYSIS