Drop-away vest

[Uncle Alvah]

This weekend, a friend was describing a tac vest he saw some years ago.
He believes it was Israeli, and that the vest contained some kind of an emergency "drop away" feature. Most essential gear, like mags, compass or whatever were in the upper half of the vest, less essential gear(is there really such a thing?) on the lower half. If one found oneself in big-time need of "beating feet", a tug on the release allowed the lower portion to drop away, while retaining mags and such.
Anybody ever heard of such a thing?

[msap]

Nevermind, didn't read the OP closely.

[mike240]

Yes, Safariland was making armor systems that had a rip cord device that would dump the system in pieces off the shooter quickly.

[Chameleox]

I've seen vests that ditch quickly; a few manufacturers make them. I've never heard of one ditching only halfway, while keeping the top half.
There is "less essential gear". Some people layer their gear by priority. Folks who wear tear away vests usually put their higher priority gear on their belts, so if they have to ditch the vest, they still have their most essential gear on them.