Lets look towards the U.S. Army and their Rapid Fielding Initiative of equipment for lessons learned that can be considered for the kit of Survival Gear and Equipment for the Urban Survivalist.
Certain units of the U.S. Army have been the first to benefit from Asymmetric Warfare Group and Rapid Equipment Force's projection of the newest and best equipment.
No where is this more evident than the replacement of the Mountain Combat Boot in favor of the Merrill Chameleon light hiking boot which has been best described as a tennis shoe on steroids. The soldiers equipped with the Merrill Chameleon love them for their lightness and traction. At 2 lbs compared to 4 lbs for the issued Mountain Combat Boot, the reason is evident.
The Army Modular Sleeping System Patrol Bag (shown below) at 2.3 lbs was replaced by the Mountain Hardware Phantom 45 sleeping bag which weighs 1 lb.
The Modular Sleeping System Bivy, an outside gore-tex cover for the Modular Sleeping System Patrol Bag, weighing 2.2 lbs was replaced by the Memo GoGo LE Tent which weighs 1.9 lbs, not a lot of weight savings here, but every ounce helps and the Soldier's reported comfortable sleeping on exposed mountain tops.
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com will be reporting on more innovations in Army gear in the future as the Army lessons learned from hard living and harder fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan certainly provide good data on the quality and ruggedness of the equipment that Urban Survivalist's may be be considering for their Survival kit.
