Kennedy Rig — Brett Conklin

Sometimes you just have to get something made, as nothing off the shelf meets all your needs or wants.

I have used the 2-piece MAV from Tactical Tailor and it filled most of that list—but there were a few things lacking. I was using the center adapter and X-harness. and then finding various pouches I needed. It mostly ended up being mag pouches, which took a lot of the real estate on the MAV body itself.

More recently I got a S.O.Tech MACHS, a special operations medical setup of their longstanding Hellcat, as reviewed by Steven a few years back. This got rid of some of the issues of space and adaptability, as it provided for internal mag pouches. The front is then blank MOLLE, giving me more real estate for any other pouches. However it only worked for 5.56 mags. In addition, the center closure was not great, with velcro and snaps. When full of mags it pulled open easily.

Steven has modified his to solve some of these issues, but by the time I considered that level of modification, I decided I'd be better off just having exactly what I wanted made instead.

I had been watching the rigs made by Kennedy Nylon Designs, so contacted him and we worked through my needs, and the details of what that would involve. I wanted to stick to the front-opening chest rig like the S.O.Tech or 2-piece MAV, but with my add-on PALS over the attachment to loose no real estate.

And he delivered!

The whole rig is made with 1000 denier Cordura in ranger green, reinforced and with binding tape at all seams and edges. The shoulder harness is padded, with mesh lining and two channels of PALs as well as elastic between each row, to attach small items and route radio cables, hydro tubes, and so on.

The belt essentially extends all the way around, with a three-row PALS panel at the back. The belt and harness are held on with a six-point harness, much as the British PLCE. While there are a lot of them, all adjustments are set up for me to be able to adjust while wearing the rig, and I don't have any extra triglides or other retainers to lock the settings down.

I am still deciding what to do with the upper and lower back panels. I may attach a small hydro carrier and buttpack, but since I wear an assault pack a lot, this may not be needed, and may get in the way.

The pack wears higher than this for real. 

I also was interested in keeping the internal mag pouches as on the S.O.Tech, but wanted to be able to carry all mag types. He built this with an interchangeable system. You can put in inserts—three per side for 5.56 guns, 2 per side for 7.62. They don't fit too snugly in the slots, so you can choose how high to wear them, and how close to the centerline, trading security and comfort for ease of access.

The 5.56 pouches are pretty roomy, so can also hold AK mags as well. The 7.62 mag pouches are also not too tight, and work with FAL, G3, and M14 mags. 

G3 mags, set lower to our left, higher on the right

FAL mags with magpuls, with the pouches set lower to our left, and higher on the right.

The front has a velcro-secured two channel PALs panel. Open that up and there are G-hooks to hold the two sides together. Much less distance than side-release clips, much like the First Spear Tubes, and other such solutions gaining traction now.

The PRC-126/128 is our CWG issue comms and pouches for those are not great. Most you can find are for ALICE gear, and while the later model USGI pouches that came with the RACK system are not terrible, they are not great. They have a simple top flap that makes it not super convenient to pass the cords or antennas, and you have to pop the lid to check or change channel or volume.

So, I also had him make a PRC-126/128 radio pouch with more modern features. It's open topped, and has plenty of room for top attachments to pass through.

Yes, we may be getting more of these made so tell us if you want to buy one for yourself. 

I have the rig set up with pistol holster on the right side now, but that can easily be swapped with a general purpose admin pouch, or likely a SAW pouch, like our beloved but hard-to-find Spec-Ops X6 as shown here.

Starting at the center and working around to my right I wear: a compass pouch, general purpose pouch, pistol holster, and canteen.

As I said above, the back panel is empty right now.

Resuming on my left side, there's the radio pouch, admin pouch, and finally a pouch to carry my map case.  I will be continuing to work with KND to have a purpose built pouch to replace that one shortly also.

 

So I now have a single rig that can fill most of the roles I need it to instead of having several rigs and doubling up on some gear, or swapping equipment from one rig to another as missions change.