Modular lightweight load-carrying equipment

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MOLLE with combat vest and large backpack

Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment ( MOLLE ) (German: Modular lightweight load bearing equipment ) is a system for carrying the personal equipment of the United States Armed Forces .

The MOLLE system consists of the combat vest, the large backpack with an external frame, the small combat backpack , the hip pocket, the hydration system and other additional pockets. The combat vest can be configured with various small pockets, for example for pistol , assault rifle or machine gun shooters , as well as grenadiers or paramedics . An innovative novelty was the modular fastening system for bags, the Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS), which later found its way into other armed forces.

MOLLE was developed in March 1994 by the United States Army Research Center, United States Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, in cooperation with the United States Marine Corps . The system replaced the previous All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) and Individual Integrated Fighting System (IIFS). MOLLE was introduced in 1997, but since ALICE is still popular, the systems are used in parallel. ALICE is considered to be more robust and simpler. The Marine Corps was the first to introduce MOLLE but was not happy with it and abandoned it a few years later in favor of other systems. The marines complained, among other things, of the reliability of the zips and of the straps that were too short to be worn comfortably over the Interceptor Body Armor . The US Army benefited from the experience of the Marine Corps and made a few changes: improved belt lock , sturdy plastic frame and changed the size of the backpack. Wearing it together with a bullet-proof vest has also been improved.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Instructions MOLLE, US Army, p. 1 [1]
  2. ↑ a b c d Hans Halberstadt: Battle Rattle - The stuff a soldier carries , 2006, Zenith Press, ISBN 978-1-61060-082-8 , pp. 7–8 [2]
  3. ↑ James B. Sampson: Human factors evaluation of the modular lightweight load-carrying equipment (MOLLE) system , August 2001, US Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command, p. 1 [3]
  4. ^ Design Museum London : Fifty Bags that Changed the World , Verlag Hachette UK, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84091-584-6 , p. 72 [4]
  5. ^ Reliability of Load Bearing Systems , 2010, pp. 36–37
  6. ↑ Reliability of Load Bearing Systems , 2010, p. 44
  7. ^ Reliability of Load Bearing Systems , 2010, p. 63