1986 Load Bearing Vest LBV & patrol pack experimental

[saxecoburg]

This is the 1986 Load Bearing Vest system. Developed by Natick Research, the vest were made by Adventure Specialist and the backpacks were made by Lowe Alpine. They were field tested by the 7th Infantry an d Special Forces during the mid-late 1980s. I've had a couple of these, they are very rare and hard to find.   

[Rhscott]

I was issued a LBV sometime in the 1990s and consider it a complete POS. Offered no advantage over the old ALICE LBE except hotter and bulkier.    Had both the hot solid panel ones and the later mesh ones. Glad they died a quick death and were relegated to history. 

[Rakkasan187]

Agreed with what Rhscott said.

 

Was issued a mesh one and hated it.. It was miserable wearing this with the frag vest.. Hard as heck to do proper individual movement techniques with the magazine pouches in the middle of your chest, low crawling with that thing was just unthinkable,, at least with the LBE we were able to undo the pistol belt and the 2 ammo pouches were on our sides rather than underneath us... Thankfully though by this time in my career when I was issued one I was pretty much confined to the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) and very rarely had to wear it, only on convoys and outside the wire, but I still had and used on occasion my LBE which was much better suited for the tight confines of the Hummer..

 

Leigh

[saxecoburg]

I guess nobody cares that this is an experimental version?

[Mercenary25]

I care and it’s awesome AF. Thanks for sharing. 

[The Rooster]

I think its awesome! Cool gear. I like the cammo on it.

But, I also think that the input from Veterans that actually wore the gear

and used the gear in the field, is a great addition to your post and detracts from it no

way at all. Its really priceless! For instance, I could post a WW2 Flak helmet. But if a WW2 vet that actually wore one, came on and posted what they thought about actually using it, well thats priceless information.

Personally all I ever wore was the alice LBE and I wore my ammo pouches and canteens more to the side and rear so that I could

low crawl without unbuckling it. I never wore one of these but what you guys said about its impracticalities makes total sense.

Thank you for pointing it out in the view point of an infantry soldier.

Cool Gear! Thank you for posting it!

[mohawkALSE]

That experimental one is cool, I like those ALICE pack style quick releases for the shoulder straps.  The later packs just had fastex side release buckles and they still looped around the shoulder straps of the LBV.    I used to have one of those ILBV's with the mesh panels when I was doing CAP as a kid.  It was great for that but I def understand how it was a bad design for actual combat troops.  Probably why not many of them ended up getting fielded and why there is tons of them now on the surplus market for cheap.  They had made a medics version of the ILBV vests that had MOLLE webbing on the mesh panels vs sewn on pockets.  I think there was also another experimental modular version of them too that was pre MOLLE that the USMC tried out.