Generation III - US Army cold weather clothing

I see that for its Generation III ECWCS (Extended Cold Weather Clothing System) the US Army has recently moved from the three layer system (polypro base layer, fleece jacket, goretex jacket) to a seven layer system incorporating a windshirt, softshell jacket and Primaloft jacket.

The individual items are here.

God help them, once you add ballistic protection they'll spend most of their time adding removing layers.

It's a lot less than most of us have in our gear cupboards .

I just thought it was interesting that they finally moved from Goretex and fleece to the newer materials lots of us have ourselves. No coincidence that this has happened now they are fighting somewhere cold I suppose. They are claiming it has made a difference too.

"During Operation Mountain Lion, I found myself praying for bad weather, the first time in my military career I was actually begging for a cold front to come through. I knew my Soldiers could handle it and the enemy couldn’t. ECWCS allowed my men to outlast the enemy on their own terrain. When the enemy was forced out of the mountains due to the bitter cold to take shelter, that’s when we got them." – LTC Christopher Cavoli, Commander, 1-32 Infantry Battalion, 10th Mountain Division

True but we rarely have to carry it all and even less likely to come under attack.

Ben Turner wrote (see)

It's a lot less than most of us have in our gear cupboards .

I just thought it was interesting that they finally moved from Goretex and fleece to the newer materials lots of us have ourselves. No coincidence that this has happened now they are fighting somewhere cold I suppose. They are claiming it has made a difference too.

Not exactly, Level 3 is fleece and Level 6 is Gore-Tex

Ben Turner wrote (see)

"During Operation Mountain Lion, I found myself praying for bad weather, the first time in my military career I was actually begging for a cold front to come through. I knew my Soldiers could handle it and the enemy couldn’t. ECWCS allowed my men to outlast the enemy on their own terrain. When the enemy was forced out of the mountains due to the bitter cold to take shelter, that’s when we got them." – LTC Christopher Cavoli, Commander, 1-32 Infantry Battalion, 10th Mountain Division

pretty much what you'd expect from a LTC though, I wonder was he speaking from frontline experience? I'd question whether the 'enemy' were on their own terrain given the numbers that turn up from elsewhere to 'take part'

R_Mac wrote (see)

Not exactly, Level 3 is fleece and Level 6 is Gore-Tex

Previously they only had the base-fleece and goretex layers. They didn't have levels 4, 5 and 7 (the windshirt or softshell or the insulation level). It just gives them more options than before.

True, but I took it from your comment that they'd stopped using fleece and Gore-Tex.

Ben Turner wrote (see)

I just thought it was interesting that they finally moved from Goretex and fleece to the newer materials lots of us have ourselves.

Combat kit has changed a lot over the past 10-15 years even in the UK armed forces, not surprising really, the last time it changed dramatically was after the Falklands. Military technology always makes a jump when there's a war, the rest of the time governments tend to see the armed forces as a waste of money