US Army Molle 4000 Airborne Rucksack

MOLLE 4000 Pack System

8465-01-F902-235

An individual equipment designer in Load Carriage Systems, Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment, Natick Soldier Systems Center, Landry spends most of his time thinking about how to lighten the Soldier's load.

"One of the things we always say is, we don't do all the critical design work here," Landry said. "It's Soldiers that do that. We put it into something tangible."

In this case, Soldiers were telling Landry that the Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment, or MOLLE, large and medium rucksacks in the Army inventory were too large and small at 3,000 and 5,000 cubic inches, respectively, for their purposes.

Soldiers also had asked for a permanent harness for airborne operations on the outside of the new rucksack, but Landry's solution was a removable harness that looked permanent.

The MOLLE 4000 tested well, but Soldiers recommended a few more modifications, such as a stronger carry strap, side compression straps and -- most importantly -- a flap closure on top to replace the original zip closure. The flap will allow for load flexibility when necessary and be more durable when released and lowered to the bottom of a 15-foot lowering line during a jump.

The current version will go into safety certification testing during March and be operationally tested in late spring at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Upon completion of a yearlong user assessment, airborne units could receive their first MOLLE 4000s before fiscal year 2017.

Objective :

Provide Airborne Soldiers with a 4000 cu in rucksack with an integrated harness single point release.

System Description :

Carries all the mission essential equipment for the Airborne Soldier.

Compatible with ABN operations and Body Armor.

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