Army Webbing

Modern Army Webbing in Britain is the PLCE modular system comprising belt, yoke and various pouches.

Webbing is basically a strong woven fabric, usually made as a flat strip or tube. Modern webbing is usually made from very high strength material, like nylon, polyester or Kevlar.

In military circles, however, the term webbing is used to refer to the belts, packs and pouches used as their load carrying equipment. It is usually only referred to as Army webbing outside the military.

Cotton webbing was used by the British Army after the Second Boer War and remained in use until after WW2. '58 pattern webbing is still available in shops today.

This cotton webbing (and the pouches, especially) was not popular in the army, due to its tendency to shrink when wet. It is sometimes jokingly suggested that part of the SAS selection procedure is to see how long it takes the candidate to get a '58 pattern water bottle out of its pouch when the pouch has been soaked in water!

Modern webbing, as in the British Army's PLCE system, however, is made from man-made fibres and does not shrink. It is also much tougher.

A lot of modern webbing is made from Cordura, which is a nylon based fabric made by Invista. It is ten times more durable than cotton duck, three times more durable than polyester, and twice as durable as standard nylon.

The thickness of the Cordura is given in denier - much like ladies tights/stockings. With webbing, however, you generally want as high a denier as possible.

Modern army webbing is made from a double layer of 1000 denier Cordura. These two layers are internally rubberised which increases the strength and makes it waterproof. Remember, though, that the material may be waterproof, but the pouch/rucksack may not be, due to seams etc..