Hunting Down the "Егерь"
Hunting Down the "Егерь"
A Brief history of the Jaeger Chest rig's lineage
USSR vs. Mujahideen
During the very peak of the cold war, the USSR invaded and attempted to occupy Afghanistan.
It was here that much of the equipment handed down from the "Great Patriotic War" (WWII) started to fall far behind in combat.
Meanwhile, their communist friends in China were arguably miles ahead in taking the grenadier vests of the world wars, making them able to hold magazines, and giving birth to the first true 'Chest Rigs'.
The humble type 56 & type 81 'Chicom' rig had a resounding effect on everyone's gear development but definitely tickled the soviets the right way.
Whether "Tactically Acquired" off of Mujahideen or eventually made themselves, they needed new webbing so badly that Chicom chest rigs were the way to go.
лифчик
The first pattern "Lifchik" chest rig was quite similar to chicom — thick canvas construction, simple pouch layout, intended for use with the AKM platform. And yes, the word "лифчик" pretty much directly translates to "Bra".
And if it ain't broke... The second pattern Lifchik chest rig made a few changes to the layout and general shape of the rig, seeing use through both the first and second chechen wars & up through the early 2000s.
With the fall of the Soviet Union & reorganization of Russia's military, much development in the nylon department also ensued with the introduction of new rigs across the board. CORDURA-like nylon replaced canvas rigs for its durability & water resistance, which took their rigs from good enough to ones you can trust for an extremely long duration in the field.
One Degree Away
SSO, the well-known gear producer behind the SMERSH webbing most people are familiar with also developed the "Latzutchik" and "Lazutchik M" or "Scout" rigs. Taking many notes from various late 90s/early 2000s rigs like the Rhodesian recon vest and British chest rigs tracing their lineage all the way back to the South African P83 system. This is also evident in the design of the "SPLAV" pioneer chest rig with its large Velcro flaps & elastic mag-keeping.
Many of these rigs incorporated a highly upgraded X Harness, MOLLE/PALS style webbing, and a simple layout that kept all the essentials while still allowing for a belt to be looped through.
Jaeger
But where does Jaeger come in? At some point during the process, the rig was refined down to be simpler.
Spanish styled buckles for pouches (likely inspired by the British PLCE system) were slowly replaced with snaps & Velcro, and the MOLLE webbing was constrained to the body of the rig. The pouches are reminiscent of ALICE with their combination snap-and-Velcro closure much like the SMERSH, and we think it's the best "Companion" rig to go with SMERSH because of it's familiar pouch design.
Jaeger unfortunately suffered much of the same fate of many other Russian webbing systems - hoarded by collectors, overpriced on the used market, or only available through sketchy avenues. We've brought it back out of obscurity with upgraded QC so it'll last yet another cold war...
In the Game World
Outside of it's appearance in several military operations, it became the object of obsession here in the west, as many Russian items have.
As notorious as the Gorka Mountain Suit (and often equipped right on top of it), it appeared in any setting where post-soviet Russian gear could be found, predominantly in Survival & Shooter video games.
Russian kit popularity hit a peak with hit games like DayZ, Arma Reforger, Rainbow Six, & Escape from Tarkov and ignited a mass fascination in the west, with entire Mil-Sim events in real life like Milsim West being able to carry out the LARP dreams of many who first encountered guns & gear in the game world.
But the stars were aligned at exactly the wrong time for Russian gear Fans.
WAR!
WAR!
How Jaeger went from rare to unobtainable, and how we're fixing that.
A New "Curtain"
The lingering wounds of the Soviet Union's split have resulted in numerous conflicts to arise in countries formerly part of the USSR.
Would they remain loyal to Russia, Try to join NATO? Or maybe even try to fend for themselves?
Ukraine has been one of the primary "battlegrounds" for this kind of conflict, and the fuse was finally lit in February 2022 with Russia's Invasion of the Donbas region.
As soon as that begun, exporting goods from Russia went from somewhat difficult to borderline impossible, as we ourselves learned when moving our Gorka suits out of the country.
With outrageous tarifs, export bans, and a slew of sanctions, Russian kit as we know it in the west became a highly endagered species.
Sure — a few pieces here and there made it out of Russia, and maybe even got stateside. Many still do. We won't pretend like they're all gone. But if you want one, you either have to get extremely lucky, buy a cheap Chinese clone, or shell out quite the stack of cash for the real mccoy.
Much like our other historical reproductions in the past, we didn't want it to go extinct.
So we got to work cloning it as closely as we could, and making sure we didn't pick a country of manufacture that'd end up getting sanctioned.
...With a Little Help From Our Friends
After investigating ways to get the real deal stateside and even re-make them in Eastern Europe to no avail, we settled on our new friends at Arktis.
With decades of experience in making combat webbing and a prolific rig of their own, they absolutely nailed the clone of SMERSH to a T and gave it a materials & construction upgrade too.
They've helped us strike the perfect balance of feeling just like the original but giving it proper QC and NIR compliant fabrics that helps it keep up with modern needs & wants.
In short — If you loved the original, rest assured you'll be right at home wearing one of ours.
