Selecting a main load bearing piece of equipment can be a tough choice. Some guys like plate carriers and the protection that’s comes with them. Other guys choose a Chest Rig because of the free movement and lighter loadout, plus being light means you’re fast, making you a harder target.
It’s no shock to everyone by now that I love Warrior Assault Systems gear; I mean whats not to like their bomb-proof kit. Trust me it’s not because they are a British company and I am a brit. For the price and quality you will not find better, therefore I chose the Warrior Assault Systems Falcon Chest Rig. Warrior this year unveiled their new Chest Rig range with two options catching my eye; the Falcon & Pathfinder. Both work in conjunction with the all new Recon Plate Carrier. I must apologize to Warrior and you the readers as I feel now I should have bought the Recon Carrier.
Warrior brought out the Falcon & Pathfinder chest rigs to work with the recon plate carrier; the idea is of sound logic and the concept makes a lot sense to me. In my line of work sometimes it’s just best to have protection; something in-between you and shrapnel. I also conduct a lot of recon work and most of the time have very little use for a plate carrier. I like to be fast and agile on my feet because a lot of the time we were tabbing 7-10km through the night conducting multiple recces. Carrying OP kit, water, ammo, food and optics; I really don’t need the extra weight, so this is where it comes in handy to have a solid chest rig. This came in the form of the falcon. I chose this over the pathfinder because I felt you could mount more of practical loadout on to the falcon.
I was not let down what a truly great bit of kit this is to have just as a standalone piece; you get a lot for money! Let us look at the rig itself, 8 mag pouches with adjustable bungee retention which allows the use of AK mags. Now personally I don’t like stuffing 8 Mags in there for me; it’s just tight and makes my drawing speed a lot slower. Of course, I am running AK Mags due to my area of operations but even with 8 AR Mags, I feel you are packing them in there to tight, but that’s just me guys. Next there are two main utility pouches each side of the rig that provide sufficient space on my set up. I ran a mini med kit on the left (quick clot, Morphine, FFD and tourniquet). In the other I ran my radio with spear battery. Pouches are secured down by Velcro. In the center, you have storage compartment for storing things like Maps, chemlights and pens. As standard you have a double pistol mag pouch on there, but this can be removed if you wish and replaced with a pouch of your choice. I chose to replace mine with a high-speed Mag pouch; this would be my “ooooh shit mag”. My main reason for replacing the high-speed mag pouch was I knew I could get a fast reload off if the time ever came to it. The other thing I really like about the rig is the loops up both sides of the harness, allowing you too neatly run any wires up or down, but also for stowing away things like med scissors, pens and even knives.
It has an H frame harness and adjustable straps on both shoulders and one around the waist making it easy adjust. Now of the course the other thing worth mentioning is that this rig can be mounted to the recon plate carrier in a few simple steps. This is done by unclipping the two shoulder straps and ripping off the patch revealing Velcro. I cannot comment on this as I did not have the recon plate carrier at the time I hopefully will have one next time around.
For me this is an excellent chest rig that provides a decent loadout straight out the box. Now I would like to see Warrior Assault Systems make a few changes; for instance, the Mag pouches I believe the Warrior elastic mag pouches would have been a better fit here. The elastic Mag pouches are one of the best around right now I would choose them any day over the kangaroo pouches. They could have engineered some MOLLE on the front of elastic Mag pouches so you could add further items. For me the elastic mag pouches make drawing speed lighting fast. I think they could have made a nice 4 stack.
All in all an amazing chest rig from Warrior Assault Systems as you would expect great job!
