Has 50/50 NYCO met its match?

[Iraq Ninja]

Looking back over the past decade, many aspects of the warfighter's kit has evolved. One aspect of this that has always intrigued me is clothing.

With the recent release of Arc'teryx's new line of clothing, it struck me how far we have come since the days when cotton was king on the battlefield. Though I have yet to try the new Arc'teryx clothing, there is no denying that it is the current hot topic in the tactical clothing industry.

First came the new clothing patterns using the standard materials. In some ways Crye led the way in breaking the mold in design, but other companies upped the ante by using state of the art materials. One stumbling block was the fact that the warfighter often survived explosions, but suffered from burns. Thus began the trend for fire resistant materials.

I suspect that 50/50 NYCO based clothing, along with the other traditional materials will be in our inventory for a long time, and the average grunt will not benefit to the current trends. But, it is interesting to see how far we have come.

So, what does the future have in store for us? Have we pushed the current technology to the limits? I think that the current high costs associated with these new designs will be a limiting factor in how prevalent they become, even for those who need such items.

Thoughts?

[militarymoron]

it's a subject that has always intrigued me as well, and we've seen quite a lot of fabric advancements make it over to the mil side from the civvie side. it took long enough, that's for sure, but i think the .mil industry has finally caught up with technology used in the civvie mountaineering arena, as far as 'performance clothing' is concerned.

however, we're also seeing needs for specialized fabrics and materials that aren't required outside of the .mil community (FR etc) and that's where i think it gets really interesting. much of that that technology is still limited to tier 1 groups, which will always be doing the beta-testing for the newest stuff, and eventually trickles out to the rest after a while (hopefully).

when i spoke to crye a few years ago about the use of NYCO for their field uniforms and combat shirts, they said that NYCO is definitely still a very viable fabric, and it actually does quite well in providing some protection against fire. the current buzzword is 'no melt/no drip' and folks need to know what the difference is between that and actual FR protection so that they don't get a false sense of security.

i think there's a lot more room for technological advancement, and always hope that the safety of the folks who go into harm's way is prioritized over cost.

[sinister]

Cost is always a driving factor for military equipment. Someone has to pay for it, and with finite funds you have to prioritize where it goes for a given population of killers to support ratio, factoring in wear-and-tear.

It's got to work, it's got to be durable, and you have to factor in sizing, combat losses, theft, pilfering, and other diversion. If it's good folks will want it.

Perfect is the enemy of good enough. American ingenuity can actually make close to perfect -- but we won't be able to afford to equip the whole force with other competing priorities (everything from socks to night vision and ballistic protection to literal soup and nuts).

[Belmont31R]

In the new Arc' stuff made in the US or Canada or is that, too, going the way of cheap overseas manufacture like their "civie" line has done? Of course they still charge the same price...



I can't really justify 400-600 on a jacket when its made in Bangladesh.

[militarymoron]

contact arc'teryx directly to find out where a specific LEAF item is made - their site also shows which products are berry or trade act compliant, but i don't think it's a complete list.
the only new pieces i have so far - the chimera and gryphon - are both made in canada.

sinister - agreed - cost is the reality.