Särmä TST PC18 Plate Carrier w. PALS Cummerbund

The PC18 was designed to meet the need for a simple yet extensively scalable plate carrier for Finnish end users, including meeting Finnish military specifications in regards to materials and construction. Compatibility with readily available industry-standard accessories was also a key design point.

Modular design

The PC18 is not just a single piece of kit, it is a whole range of components for the user to piece together according to personal preference. The plate bags are the heart of the carrier, everything else is optional. This is a basic kit with a PALS Cummerbund: just choose the color and size!

On top of the numerous options we offer, the PC18 is also compatible with a plethora of industry-standard accessories from many other manufacturers and brands such as the Swiftclip placards and chest rigs from Velocity Systems, Esstac, Spiritus Systems, etc.

An important detail is the 4-way stretch fabric used in the construction of the plate bags. The PC18 is designed for 25 x 30 cm plates (10" x 12"), with or without soft NIJ IIIA backers. How valuable a detail this is is difficult to grasp until you have tried a pair of too-thick plates into a too-small, non-expanding plate carrier.

PC18 components

Plate bags

• Front: front panel attachment points, PALS webbing, Velcro One-Wrap cable management and loop for patches.
• Back: PALS webbing and loop for patches.
• Hook-and-loop for cummberbund attachment.
• Shoulder straps with hook-and-loop adjustment,
• Body side made from stretch fabric, even thin plates sit firml in place.
• Body side loop surface for cushion attachment.
• Designed for 254 x 305 mm / 10" x 12" plates.
• Max. plate thickness 28 mm / 1.1".

Shoulder pads

• Hook-and-loop closure.
• 4x1 PALS webbing on the top.
• Velcro One-Wrap cable management loops.

Elastic cummerbund

• Simple and lightweight cummerbund made from elastic webbing.
• Attaches by hook-and-loop.
• S/M for 85-110 cm / 33.5" - 43.5" chest circumference.
• L/XL for 100-125 cm / 39.5" - 49" chest circumference.

PALS cummerbund

• Three rows high double sided PALS webbing..
• Attaches by a hook-and-loop adapter and bungee cord.
• S/M for 85-110 cm / 33.5" - 43.5" chest circumference.
• L/XL for 100-125 cm / 39.5" - 49" chest circumference.

4x6 PALS front panel

• Four rows high and six channels wide PALS webbing.
• G-hook and hook-and-loop attachment to front platebag.
• Bottom corner tabs to ease opening.

Tips and notes

Front panel attachment

The front plate bag attachment points are compatible with most placards and chest rigs out there. This means you can run our PC18 with a Mayflower UW chest rig, or Esstac Daeodon panel. The PC18 does not come with QASM buckles installed since our own front panels and chest rigs use G-hooks.

Velcro One-Wrap

We use One-Wrap instead of the common closed elastic band loops for cable/tube/antennae management. One-Wrap is super easy and fast to use and does not require you to disconnect plugs from your comms and valves from your hydration tubes. Just open up the wrap, place whatever you want to attach to it in place, and roll it up.

Cummerbund hook-and-loop attachment

We chose hook-and-loop for the cummerbund attachment for the simple reason that this offers the most options for the end-user to run their PC18 with different brands and manufacturers' cummerbunds. To attach the PALS webbing cummerbund, we use a simple and reliable hook-and-loop shock cord adapter.

Hook-and-loop hanging accessories

The plate bag bottom openings follow the industry-standard construction style. This makes the PC18 compatible with the multitude of different hook-and-loop attachable hang mounted accessories out these, such as the Ferro Concepts Dangler and Haley Strategic Multi-Mission Hanger. And of course our very own Särmä TST Hanger Utility Pouch.

Finnish MILSPEC materials

Green and M05 woodland camo

Made of the same materials and hardware (1000D Cordura, PES webbing, ITW Nexus buckles etc.) that are used in the production of the Finnish military M05 combat equipment. High quality, NIR compliant etc.

M05 snow camo

M05 snow camo gear fabric is Foxa's 1000D Foxdura. Webbing is made in Finland, by Finn-Nauha. All materials are NIR compliant.

Made in the EU

The green and M05 woodland camo products are manufactured in co-operation with Finn-Savotta Oy (Finland's leading military and outdoors gear manufacturer and the main load-bearing equipment contractor for the Finnish Defence forces). Depending on the situation production runs are sewn either in Savotta's Finnish or Estonian factory, sometimes even partially in Finland and partially in Estonia. The little printed tags tell where exactly each particular product was sewn. The M05 snow camo products are made in the Czech Republic by Finnish CPE.