arktis gear Arktis Jaeger Chest Rig – KommandoStore

arktis gear Arktis Jaeger Chest Rig – KommandoStoreAnother extremely popular customer demand bring a Russian rig from a bygone era of plentiful Russian surplus & easily accessible online purchasing, back to the west. And so we did. Along with our efforts to clone the SSO SMERSH with Arktis, we also teamed up to tackle the Jaeger chest rig. Stretching all the way back to the "Chicom" rig of the late 50s, the forces of communist China & Russia were just a tiny bit ahead in the chest rig game in

Another extremely popular customer demand - bring a Russian rig from a bygone era of plentiful Russian surplus & easily accessible online purchasing, back to the west. And so we did.

Along with our efforts to clone the SSO SMERSH with Arktis, we also teamed up to tackle the Jaeger chest rig.

Stretching all the way back to the "Chicom" rig of the late 50s, the forces of communist China & Russia were just a tiny bit ahead in the chest rig game in comparison to countries of the west - and with it, the tactics were also just a tiny bit ahead. Troops could be equipped with less and engage at a higher tempo. Whether insurgent forces in the jungles of Vietnam or VDV paratroopers, a chest rig and an AK dominated communist forces for decades. 

The Russian interest primarily came from the very Chicom rig that started it all — whether producing their own canvas models after using the Chinese variety or eventually improving upon it with the first pattern "lifchik" chest rig for the AK74 in the late 80s.

Around this time, much of the world was starting to move away from the use of cotton canvas and more towards nylon and Velcro.

With the fall of the Soviet Union & reorganization of Russia's military, much development in the nylon department also ensued with the introduction of new rigs across the board. CORDURA-like nylon replaced canvas rigs for its durability & water resistance, which took their rigs from good enough to ones you can trust for an extremely long duration in the field.

SSO, the well-known gear producer behind the SMERSH webbing most people are familiar with also developed the "Latzutchik" and "Lazutchik M" or "Scout" rigs. Taking many notes from various late 90s/early 2000s rigs like the Rhodesian recon vest and British chest rigs tracing their lineage all the way back to the South African P83 system. This is also evident in the design of the "SPLAV" pioneer chest rig with its large Velcro flaps & elastic mag-keeping. Many of these rigs incorporated a highly upgraded X Harness, MOLLE/PALS style webbing, and a simple layout that kept all the essentials while still allowing for a belt to be looped through. 

But where does Jaeger come in? At some point during the process, the rig was refined to be simpler to construct. Spanish styled buckles for pouches (likely inspired by the British PLCE system) were slowly replaced with snaps & Velcro, and the MOLLE webbing was constrained to the body of the rig. The pouches are reminiscent of ALICE with their combination snap-and-Velcro closure much like the SMERSH, and we think it's the best "Companion" rig to go with SMERSH because of it's familiar pouch design. 

Jaeger unfortunately suffered much of the same fate of many other Russian webbing systems - hoarded by collectors, overpriced on the used market, or only available through sketchy avenues. We've brought it back out of obscurity with upgraded QC so it'll last yet another cold war...

Features

• Snap/Velcro closure Magazine pouches with removable inserts
• "Flare" pockets on each side of the main magazine cell cluster.
• Wide shoulder harness straps with padding at the shoulders for all-day comfort
• Detachable MOLLE-Style grenade pouches included with rig
• Internal map pocket with drawcord-attached map pouch
• Drainhole grommets in all pouches
• Large sturdy waist buckle
• Metallic, Spanish style quick doffing buckles on shoulder straps
• Waist belt loops for attaching accessory load bearing belt (not included)

Specs

• 500D Cordura Nylon Construction
• Color-matched Russian "Olive" colorway
• Intended for use with AKM Magazines
• MOLLE re-locatable grenade pouches
• NIR Compliant fabrics to reduce visibility under night vision
• Same Polymer & Metal buckle combination as original SSO Jaeger Rig
• Quick releasing buckles for fast doffing
• Waist & Height Adjustable from approximately US Size XS-2XL

Sizing Notes

The primary bottleneck on any chest rig is how big it's waist belt can get — the Jaeger rig can extend from 26" to 46" or from a US XS to a US 2XL. When it comes to heights, the shoulder harness has plenty of room for adjustment for users who fall in that same spectrum of US T-Shirt sizes so Rest assured that it's as one size fits all as we could possibly make it.