New Air Force Survival Kit and Armour carrier?

[Mashsig]

When I was looking for AF photos of the Air Aces "snap track" survival vests in use for "Survival" last night I found on the Air Force Photo site a photo of a pilot qualifying in Germany - who appears to be wearing a new Survival "Pad" or Belly Kit.

 

----See my new topic today (27Aug2013) about AFSO21 entitled: Air Force Decides Fighter Pilots will not wear Survival Vests...

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/186301-air-force-decides-fighter-pilots-will-not-wear-survival-vests/

 

 

 

I concede upfront that this might be some new Air Force reserve chute that I am unaware of - however the orange nylon handle and the new AFSO21 - makes me think this is a new AF Survival Kit! Which would mean that the Air Force did consider the Capt. Scott O'Grady ejection and survival story in Bosnia (Basher Five Two) as a possibility for downed pilots!

 

The following post is another photo of this kit.

[Mashsig]

Here is another cropping of the same photo:

 

 

(The 150k photo upload limit is the reason I had to crop this photo. If you can not find the Official Air Force Photo website where you can search for photos - let me know.)

 

The following photo is another crop of the same photo and appears to be some sort of new armour carrier.

[Mashsig]

There appears to be a zip up shirt on the same pilots chest under the "belly" kit and the parachute harness.

 

Could this be - in light of the new Air Force "Smart Operating" procedure for the 21st century a new armour carrier?

 

 

That's what it looks like.