Probably not, but it seems weird to us here at Kit Up! that engineers at Natick wouldn't know about a system that's been out for nearly two years that addresses the same issue they worked on here.
Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center initiated an Immediate-Action prototyping effort in support of Soldiers in Operation Enduring Freedom. The result is the High-Capacity Ammunition Carriage System which enables a machine gunner to carry and fire up to 500 rounds of linked ammunition from a rucksack-like carrier......The initial concept was field-crafted in OEF by a Soldier who used obsolete load carriage frames and harnesses, spare parts, and readily available dunnage held together by bungee cords and nylon zip ties.
Good on the Joes in The 'Stan who jury rigged their own machine gun ammo carrier out of duct tape and bailing twine, but why did Natick and NSRDEC spend so much time (45 days) and resources to build their own "authorized" version when Tyr Tactical has been marketing their Machine Gunner's Assault Pack for a couple years?
The MICO meets the Army's requirements (500 rounds of 5.56 or 7.62 ammo) and all it would have taken is a phone call to get to the field. In fact, we wrote about it here back in mid-May.
Look, we're all for the field expedient innovation and good on Natick for jumping on this and delivering something so quickly to troops in the field. But it seems that the effort could have been better spent on a product that's not readily available in the tactical marketplace instead of one that's been featured in booths from AUSA to Modern Day Marine.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: We received the release on this project from Natick's news feed. Tyr had no input whatsoever on the original Kit Up! post, but we are seeking comment from them.)
