Tactical Rig: It's been a long road...

So we've got a release date for the MkV tactical rig. I wanted to put this out here because someone is going to ask why we're launching with a MkV and not the logical MkI. Well, here we go.

MkI - Vest
The MkI was essentially the current Hasbro owned Nerf tactical vest with MOLLE webbing on it. The problem with that is the difference in body shape between men and women makes a vest next to unusable for women. We were faced with a choice between building two separate rigs or building something that fitted everyone. We chose the latter. There's no sense only designing for 50% of the population when a few simple changes will open it up to the other 50%.

MkII - Yoke
The MkII was essentially a yoke system with a belly rig. It was thrown out because there wasn't enough space for it to carry awesome stuff.

MkIII - Tactical Rig Micro

MkIV sample rig

The MkIII was the hybrid tactical rig. It's a cross between a vest, and a yoke. It has a back plate and plenty of space to get stuff attached to it but there was a SNAFU with the anthropometric data and it would have only fitted 2 year-olds.



MkIV - Tactical Rig Proper
The MkIV saw the addition of a belt to maintain shape, expand capacity and increase integration with our broader tactical gear range. It also saw a redesign of the straps and D-rings.

MkV - Release Edition
The MkV is the edition you will see out in the field. It has had nearly 2 months of solid development work and field testing. It has a wide range of compatible accessories and has a number of changes over the MkIV. Following community feed back, the back plate has been stiffened with an extra layer of Cordura Nylon fabric to allow for extra weight to be fixed to the it. We added built-in pouches to the belly rig to remove the need to buy extra stuff to make the rig useful: it adds a nice platform beyond storing stuff in your cargo trousers while you're saving for the next item in your collection.

So there you go, the full development pathway of the BSUK Tactical Rig. I'm reasonably nervous about letting this baby onto the market especially when there are so many other good offerings from military companies but we're the only people within our market segment at this price point, I believe. It's sort of like letting a child leave home, you're worried what everyone will think but in the end it'll turn out to be fine. Hopefully.

The MkV is available for order on 10th April 2013 at www.blastersmiths.co.uk.