MOLLE Chest Rig Vest Flatpack Tactical Backpack

Your kit on your chest, not buried in your pack.

The gear you need first always ends up at the bottom of the pack. The torch, the spare magazine, the multi-tool, the thing you are reaching for right now. To get at any of it you stop, pull the pack off your shoulders, put it in the dirt and dig through it. On a cold morning that is a minute of fumbling with your gear on the ground and your hands full.

A chest rig moves that problem to somewhere you can see it. The handful of things you reach for most sit flat across your front, in reach without breaking stride. This one is a micro rig — a low, wide panel carrying a removable triple rifle magazine insert, a pistol magazine pouch on each wing, and a zip pouch with room for a phone, a headtorch and something to eat.

Behind it clips a flatpack. Empty it compresses down almost flat against your back; loaded it opens out to 25 litres with a main compartment and a separate admin area. The whole outer face of the pack is PALS ladder webbing, so pouches go where you want them rather than where somebody else decided. The rig on its own is about 500 g and the pair together about 1.2 kg.

It is not body armour, and we are not going to let the word tactical suggest otherwise. There is no plate pocket anywhere on it, nothing on it is rated to stop anything, and no plates are included or fitted. It is a way of carrying gear.

What It Does

• Puts kit on your front: the things you grab most sit across your chest where you can see them and reach them one-handed, instead of behind you.
• Carries three rifle magazines: the removable insert has three cells, described by the supplier as sized for 5.56 mm rifle magazines. Magazines are not included.
• Two pistol mag pouches: one on each wing of the panel, sitting outboard where they clear the main pouch.
• Swallows the odds and ends: a large zip pouch across the front of the panel, and a second zip compartment behind it.
• Expands 12 to 25 litres: both the main compartment and the admin area compress flat or open right out, so the pack is only as big as what is in it.
• Takes MOLLE pouches: PALS ladder webbing runs across the outer face of the flatpack, so any standard MOLLE pouch weaves straight on.
• Comes apart: the front panel detaches from the harness on a hook-and-loop tongue and buckle tabs, and the magazine insert lifts out on its own.
• Adjusts to the wearer: harness length runs from 40 to 69 cm (400 to 690 mm) on ladder-lock adjusters, over a jacket or over a shirt.

Key Features

• 500D nylon: the supplier’s own spec panels give the fabric as 500D nylon. Denier is a measure of yarn weight, not of strength or of a load rating — treat it as a fabric description and nothing more.
• PALS webbing on the pack: full ladder webbing across the outer face of the flatpack. The supplier does not publish a row or column count.
• Removable magazine insert: the triple cell block is a separate piece that lifts straight out, so you can run the rig as a plain admin panel.
• Detachable front panel: a long hook-and-loop tongue plus buckle tabs, so the panel can be moved onto a compatible loop-fronted carrier or vest.
• Loop field for patches: a wide hook-and-loop panel across the front for a call sign, a blood group patch or a name tape.
• Shell loops in the large pouch: the supplier’s detail photo labels an elastic loop strip inside the large pouch as a shotgun shell holder, alongside a fixing strap and an elastic retainer.
• Side-release buckles throughout: the shoulder straps and the rear strap all run quick-release buckles, so the whole thing comes off without going over your head.
• Five colourways: Black, MC, TAN, FG and OD, all at the one price.
• Weights, as stated: about 500 g for the chest rig on its own, about 1.2 kg for the rig and the flatpack together.

Limits

It is not body armour and it will not be made into any.

We went through every photograph the supplier provides, front and back, inside and out. There is no plate pocket on this rig. No plates are included, none can be fitted, and no ballistic, stab or fragmentation rating is claimed for any part of it. It carries gear and that is all it does. Anything you read anywhere that suggests otherwise is wrong.

It is not issued kit and we make no claim that it is.

There is no military, police or emergency-service issue, approval or affiliation behind this. Tactical here is a styling and a layout, nothing more. The camouflage pattern is a print on a bag.

Other things it will not do:

• No load rating: the supplier publishes no maximum load for the pack, the harness, the buckles or the webbing, so we will not print one. Do not hang anything on it that would hurt if a strap let go.
• No magazines, no rifle: the supplier’s own artwork states magazines are excluded, and it is the pouches you are buying. Nothing goes in them but what you put there.
• Not waterproof: no water rating is published and nothing on it is sealed. Standard coil zips, no storm flaps. Do not count on it keeping anything dry.
• Not a multi-day pack: 25 litres at the very most, no internal frame and no padded hip belt. It is a day’s worth of gear on your shoulders, not a week’s.
• No certification sighted: no standard is printed on it and no certificate was supplied to us for any part of it.
• A chest rig sits on your chest: that is the point of it, and it is also the trade-off. It is in the way when you go prone and it is warm in summer. If you want your load off your front entirely, a plain daypack suits you better.

Q & A

Do I get the backpack as well, or just the chest rig?

The supplier presents this as the pair — the chest rig and the flatpack together — on three separate artwork panels, and there is only one price and one set of colour options with no rig-only choice. So the pair is what the listing is for. If a pack does not turn up in your parcel, tell us and we will sort it out.

Will MOLLE pouches actually attach to it?

Yes, to the pack. The outer face of the flatpack carries full PALS ladder webbing and any standard MOLLE pouch weaves onto it. The chest panel itself is different — its front is a hook-and-loop loop field for patches and placards rather than ladder webbing, and its back carries the detachable tongue and buckle tabs. So webbing pouches go on the pack, hook-and-loop placards go on the panel.

Does it take armour plates?

No. There is no plate pocket in it, no plates come with it, and nothing about it is rated to stop anything. If you are shopping for a plate carrier, this is not one and you should keep looking.

What do the colour codes mean?

The supplier does not spell them out, so here is what the photographs show. MC is a multi-tone camouflage print in browns and greens. FG is a dark grey-green. OD is a flat olive. TAN is a flat coyote brown. Black is plain black. Look at the gallery images before you pick, because the codes vary between suppliers.

Will it fit me over a jacket?

The harness runs from 40 to 69 cm (400 to 690 mm) between its shortest and longest settings, with the chest panel 260 mm wide. That covers most adults over a shirt or a light jacket. It is one size on ladder-lock adjusters — there is no size chart and no small or large version.

How long will it take to get here?

Allow 10 to 14 days from the day you order, and up to three weeks if you are regional or remote. Delivery is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs