Recommended 2P Tents for Special Forces

I recently received an e-mail from a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Special Forces preparing for re-deployment to locations including Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, and Central and South America. He’s outfitting three teams of five men each, field testing equipment to see how it will perform in harsh conditions, and looking for recommendations for civilian manufactured tents, as well as eye-wear.

To quote: “We need a tent that is light-weight, durable, rain-proof and provides a reasonable level of protection from the elements. A two-person tent seems to be ideal for one soldier and his equipment. Finding the right balance between weight, bulk and protection is a challenge. The colors can’t be too bright (neon pink doesn’t blend well in a combat zone...) and the construction has to be fairly rugged. This is definitely a specialized need.”

So, I thought I’d present this to the forum and see what gear recommendations you have.

No politics please, just tent recommendations.

Depending upon how much money they wish to spend I would look long and hard at the Hilleberg lineup. If I were in the market for a hard core expedition tent Hilleberg would be at the top of my shopping list.

I think Hilleberg's standard colors are probably a bit brighter than the military would want, although the tents are quite rugged. But Integral Designs and Bibler make 2-man expedition tents (the Bibler I-tent and Eldorado, for example - but maybe Black Diamond is now calling them Black Diamond tents). These are reasonably light and quite fast to set up. Integral Designs has done a fair amount of production for the Canadian military, so they could have sufficient experience should it progress beyond field testing. My Eldorado is a green that blends fairly well with vegetation, which is important to me as an LNT trainer. It isn't invisible, since it is a fairly light green, but is pretty subdued in the woods and even above treeline.

When I was looking for tents/bivys for my upcoming climbing trip I looked at all of the Integral Designs tents and it seems to me that they would definitly be the way to go. They already have a line of tents just for this purpose. I'm guessing the weather is dry in Afgahnistan and the single wall would perform well. It looks like all the 2 man Bibler/BD tents are bright yellow now with the exception of the Ahwahnee sp?and tempest. http://www.bdel.com/gear/shelter_overview.php

http://www.integraldesigns.com/product.cfm?id=20&CFID=9066788&CFTOKEN=95320359&mainproducttypeid=2

I wonder what they are looking for? The military are already using "civilian" manufacturer tents. Eureka is making them. For the squad size teams, they are using the assualt tents (made by Eureka) which is a four season tent. They also make a "bivy" which I cant recall the model of it for a three season tent. They also make very large modules for the medical units and motor pools. All of these tents meet military specs. As for the eye wear, it used to be the gargoles (sp?). Meets Z87 ANSI impact standards and the laser standards. Have him contact the 160th SOARs S-4. They do a LOT of testing with ALSE's equipement. Also, if he is out of Fort Bragg, he can contact his S-4 and get the phone number to the DLA Depot in Pa. They stock and test equipment for the military.

Alicia: You can also have the SFC go to Military.com and they have a fourm for the SOG teams. He might want to ask on that forum. There are a lot of military past and present on the fourm and a lot of those guys hunt, backpack etc. They may have some recommendations.

Sounds like that under certain operational situations or in certain environments the current tents aren't satisfying the performance needs of the units in question. For example, I'd have a hard time accepting that a tent designed for mountaineering would be ideal in a climate like that in much of Central America.

Apparently this individual is just trying to think outside of the box.

From Eureka's web site:

The Combat Tent is a two-man, three-season, free-standing, double wall tent. The Combat Tent incorporates a vapor permeable tent body with a waterproof floor and fly, which also provides 20 sq. ft. of vestibule area for gear storage. The Combat Tent has two doors (entrance/exit openings), and using shockcorded poles, requires no special tools for erection and striking. Additionally, the rain fly is adaptable for use independent of the tent body, utilizing the poles and stakes provided.

Operable conditions 0° to 120°F
Ventilation for use in desert/arid environments, minimizes internal build up of condensation
Withstands steady 40 mph winds and gusts to 55 mph
Provides protection from flying and crawling insects
Has sufficient head room for changing clothes
Rain fly covers all openings in the shelter
Rain fly prevents the escape of light and provides protection against visual and infrared
Rain fly when installed provides 20 sq. ft. of additional covered storage and is adaptable for use independent of the shelter
Rain fly has high wind guy out points for staking down the tent
Spare parts kit available

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

The sergeant's reason for contacting us was two-fold, tent and eyewear advice, as well as the hope of getting some of that gear donated. Since we don't have gear to donate I figured I'd at least address the advice part of it.

I think Fred's correct in that this man is trying to think outside the box and discover gear that meets his specialized needs better than what is currently available to him.

The request interested me because it's not the first one of this nature that I've received. I've also heard from a man in a Canadian infantry company serving in Afghanistan who's trying to pull together care packages and extra gear (1-man, 3-season expedition shelters, unspillable/unbreakable coffee mugs, hydration systems, and expedition bivy shelters) for the individuals he serves with.

I'm going to reply to the Special Forces Sergeant to let him know what's been suggested here. If anyone's curious, here's his full e-mail, but I've removed his contact info and name.

***

I am writing to you to request your help for an upcoming military deployment with the 20th Special Forces GP. I am a Team SGT for one of 20th GP's three Chemical Reconnaissance Detachments (CRD). 20th GP is a National Guard component of the Special Forces. Having completed a Group-wide deployment to Afghanistan in 2002/2003, we are now dispatching smaller elements to locations all over the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's where my CRD comes in. We have just implemented these teams and they are designed to operate on an unprecedented level within the Special Forces community. We have three teams, each consisting of five men. We have been given the latitude to develop our own SOP and a decent amount of funding to equip our teams. We are in the process of field testing various equipment to determine how it will perform in the harsh conditions that will accompany re-deployment to areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa and Central and South America. These deployments are either currently in effect or approaching quickly.

Two of the main areas in which we have identified civilian manufactured needs are tents and eye-wear. We need a tent that is light-weight, durable, rain-proof and provides a reasonable level of protection from the elements. A two-person tent seems to be ideal for one soldier and his equipment. Finding the right balance between weight, bulk and protection is a challenge. The colors can't be too bright (neon pink doesn't blend well in a combat zone...) and the construction has to be fairly rugged. This is definitely a specialized need.

This is why I am asking for your advice and possibly a tent (or tents) to T&E. Your experience and knowledge of your product would benefit us greatly in the process. Our teams could provide an excellent level of feedback. Once we find the right tent, we will try and get the money approved to outfit the entire CRD. If the military won't pay for the civilian gear, we'll try and figure out how to fund it ourselves. Either way, the main goal here is to go "into country" with gear that I know will perform for our guys in the field.

Eyewear is also an important consideration for us. As Paratroopers, we need goggles that are low-profile, provide an excellent field of view and fit snuggly enough not to fly off when we are exiting an aircraft. Once on the ground, we need good glare protection and eyewear that protects us when we shoot (I have worn out a pair of Oakley M-frame hybrids using them just on the firing range˜but they performed perfectly for our needs). Any suggestions or samples you might have for us would be greatly appreciated. Once again, we would be glad to T&E any and all of the gear with detailed write-ups.

Let me assure you that this is a sincere request, the goal of which is to provide my team and the other teams of the CRD with quality gear, an asset that makes all the difference a combat environment. I wish the military would issue us gear on that level but the simple fact is that usually they don't, and we don't make enough money in the civilian world to purchase a lot of our own gear to offset that fact. Your help would be genuinely appreciated and I feel that the potential feedback from our field testing could be valuable to your marketing and product development. I hope we can work together with this request.

Somehow I overlooked the full list of places for the intended uses. Fred is right that a single tent is probably not going to suit all the uses from Afghanistan to Central America. Afghanistan has weather and conditions ranging from high altitude expedition with blizzards and subzero temperatures to hot desert conditions, while Central America is mostly hot humid jungles (though there are areas that are quite cool - having spent a year living in Honduras). South America has the full range from jungles in the Amazon (including the eastern foothills of the Andes - hot and humid with lots of creepy-crawlers to keep out), to deserts that can be very hot and dry to mountain regions that are full-on high altitude expedition with high winds and heavy snowfall year around to the southern tip in the Argentine and Chilean Patagonia. While a 3-season tent would cover a lot of the conditions in the list, there are parts of the year in some of the countries that demand a full-on expedition tent. My first impression, and why I recommended the Integral Designs and Bibler tents, was that I saw the "Afghanistan" listing first. These tents are not very good in tropical conditions, but would cover most conditions in Afghanistan (including the desert areas except during the hot season) and large parts of South America. Thing is, South America and Africa are large continents with the full range of conditions, so a single type of tent won't fit all those conditions satisfactorily - too many requirements that would be contradictory. For example, lots of ventilation for the hot humid areas would let in dust in the windy desert areas (actually had that experience at 16,000 ft on Orizaba) and snow and spindrift in high altitude blizzard conditions. Keeping the rain out will keep the jungle humidity in.

I think the SpecForce guy will have to go with 2 or 3 kits, dependent on 2 or 3 general climate areas, just like their camo comes in several colors and patterns, depending on whether they are in jungle, desert, or winter conditions. I have looked at the Eureka tent that FMD mentions. It does a good job of covering a wide range of conditions, but still has limitations that would show up in some of the conditions.

On the eyewear, there are several companies that make goggles that seal well and can be had with prescription lenses that are used by ski racers (they don't look like the standard ski goggles, so no need to reply about how bad Bolles and Smiths are in windy conditions).

I've got a pair of goggles made by a company called Goggs. They make a variety of shapes. Mine are fairly small, fit under a ski helmet and have replaceable lenses. I can fit my prescription glasses under them as well. They have a website, like everyone else does. Worth a look.

tell the sarge to contact this sarge at:

http://www.hikinghq.net/

Alicia, ditto what FMD stated, I have been aware of Eurekas' milspec tents for quite some time. Having some experience in SpecOps, I'd highly suggest you refer the Sgt to Henry Shires at his Tarptent website. Henry is probably the best person in the tent arena to help field the questions, and or make them tents. In volume Henry could work with them to keep indivual cost down.

For what it's worth, most operators prefer to just tarp or bivy in the field.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be sure to pass it along.

We actually got our first Tarptent this summer, a Rainshadow 2. It is surprisingly large (some might say huge) for its weight (42 ounces).

Alicia, it came to me the other night that you should pass along this info, Tanya Brooks @ Mcnett Corp is a VP of Sales and deals with the Military SpecOps groups/ tbrooks@mcnett.com; and the last time I met with Dana Gleason he was FULL ON working on SpecOP gear (mostly packs)from his new digs in the NW. I don't have Dana's card handy but he can be googled. Note, Dana sold 'Dana Designs' awhile back and is not DBA 'Dana Designs'; rather he's working under 'Mystery Ranch' his new company.

Alicia, when I talked to the Integral Designs folks at the ORShow, they told me that their Canadian military work is at a bit of a lull right now (most of the contracts have been completed - early and under the bid cost, unusual for that type of contract). Some of the work had to do with the places listed in the request you got. So send ID as another contact that has had experience making specific gear for military ops in the areas of interest.

Thanks for the recent suggestions Gear Guy and Bill. I'll be sure to pass them along.

Why reinvent the wheel. There is already places to go that meets Milspecs.

From the S4 160th Soar:

Regiment ALSE: Setting the Standard and Blazing the Trail! The Regiment's Aviation Life Support Equipment (ALSE) section is recognized as among the best in the Army! The ALSE shop routinely conceives, researches, procures, tests and evaluates new ALSE gear, ensuring that the Night Stalker aviator is the best equipped on the modern battlefield. Right now, the ALSE section is in the development and testing phases for a multitude of new ALSE gear, including fire resistant cold weather gear, enhanced cold weather aviation gloves, fire retarding cold and hot weather flyers boots, and ergonomically-efficient, state-of-the-art, aviator flotation devices, to name just a few of their ongoing projects. The ALSE section cannot afford to be single-mindedly focused on their RDT&E mission ... they still have to maintain and service the aviation life support equipment for over 800 aviators! Other U.S. Army and Department of Defense units routinely call on the 160th ALSE for their ideas and expertise, and that exchange of ideas and information has resulted in better ALSE equipment for all aviators. 160th ALSE is truly setting a high standard for the aviation community!

OCIE: "Cutting Edge" Individual Equipment for the Night Stalker! The 160th operates across the spectrum of conflict and, as we have already mentioned, in every theater in the world. This kind of worldwide mission requires a variety of climatic, environmental and mission-specific individual equipment. The Regiment's Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE) section is responsible for the development, testing, procurement, receipt, storage and issuing of over $200 million worth of the most state-of-the-art individual clothing and equipment in the US Army inventory. This equipment includes everything from specialized uniform items to watches, knives, eye protection, specialized helmets and footwear. The OCIE section also interfaces with a multitude of governmental and non-governmental research, development, testing and procurement agencies to ensure that the Night Stalkers preparing for deployment has virtually everything they needs to accomplish their mission. The OCIE section has leveraged every possible source of support to ensure individual combat readiness!

CONTACT POINT is Major Phelps.

Also, the DLA depot in Pa. These are the people that tests clothing/tents/boots etc for the military. Website is GlobalSecurity.com. This is what this company does.

The Eureka tents are reliable tents. They are already in the DLA systems and they can be requistioned through the 20th SFG S-4.

FMD, I think the reason for the increasing number of inquiries is the same as when I worked in the aerospace industry - the milspec system works very slowly in responding to new needs. As an example, in the early parts of the MidEast operations (starting with Kuwait), there was a large lag in supply of GPS receivers. So although the civilian receivers lacked the facility for "authorized" use, there was a huge demand for civilian receivers to be sent to individuals. These proved to be more than adequate for day to day operations, even though they were of little use for precision targeting.

Same thing is showing up here - there are many items in the camping gear market that are adequate (and in some cases exceed milspec), and it is faster and easier to get the gear to the soldiers in the field than through normal supply channels. In some cases, a milspec has not been developed for the particular operation (having spent time in aerospace, I can tell you that sometimes developing and getting a new spec approved takes a loooonnnnngggg time).

Your point about looking for something already approved and in the pipeline is a good one. Or even something that meets milspec, but isn't in the official pipeline (an example is a number of ham radio HTs, like my Yaesu VX7, that are milspec, except for the frequencies, which it turns out can be reprogrammed with readily available software programs). Among others, Eureka has been mentioned, as has Integral Designs, both of which have and do produce tents and other gear that meet milspec.

Then, too, some of the requests are coming from groups that are trying to develop the eventual milspecs. Again, when I was in aerospace, one thing we had contracts to examine was applicability of commercial "best practices" to defense applications. Some of the commercial products turn out to far exceed milspec and are produced at much less cost (it often turns out that the required paperwork that must accompany each item exceeds in cost and sometimes bulk the item itself).

Alot of actual uniform/gear testing gets done up in Natick,MA by the Army's unit there.

Back in 2002-2005 when I worked out of McDill AFB I met with the folks I mentioned, plus many others; who, even though they are'nt large corporations, do handle MilSpec contracts for SpecOps.

Johnson Outdoors, the parent company of Eureka, has a MilSpec line under procurement as we speak. Nothing further.

Can I recommend that you rewrite some of the details of the soldier's inquiry? It may be unwise to publish anything that could possibly tip off enemy forces as to what to look for in potential combat zones. In my opinion, its better to err on the side of caution.

Hi Kirk, your suggestion is something I also considered when originally posting the soldier's inquiry. However, I figured since the info was very general and the inquirer is well aware that it's been posted here (I've periodically alerted him to the updates here), that it's okay.

The sergeant has been very appreciative of everyone's interest and suggestions, and he says, "we're still evaluating options and every suggestion helps."

Of course, unlike other tent threads, we'll most likely never know what he ends up using. Thanks for your concern.

Bill: I was recalled for Desert Storm (I was ETS out by 8 months). I never in my six years of active duty used nor was trained on a GPS unit until my recall. What was explained to us in CA at the NTC base when I was recalled was that the 50:000 military topo maps were very outdated for the middle east area and that the units were going to be forced to use the GPS (we were told to call them Navstars) We received three days of training by a civilian and that was it. I was very uncomfortable without my lenstatic compass and topo map. Granted that the Air Force and Navy used GPS for years but most if not all of the ground forces did not.I was also told that for this reason is why the SA was turned off and then the FAA lobbied to keep it off after the conflict. I then went to Alasurd in 2003 as a PMC (private military contractor) and worked with the Marines and Aussies SAS. Nobody carried tents. If you read the Sgt. comments, his unit was assinged to a SFG for CRD (used to be called NBC). Most SFG's operate from fire bases. Not really a need for tents. When these guys are humping 100-150 pounds, a tent just isnt that important. I am not really sure what the CRD teams do (nor should we want to know) but I would assume that their missions wouldnt be that much more of a LRRP team and the Eureka tents worked well for us in all sorts of climates.

Kirk: What you are refering too is called OPSEC. OPSEC states no last names, dates of deployments, specific locations of deployments, addresses, phone numbers, email, troop strengths and make up, personal transactions, troops missions or security protocals. I dont really see any OPSEC rules broken. The guy is just asking about a tent for his unit.

FMD,
The DMA maps actually had numerous problems besides being out of date, which is why NIMA (successor to DMA, and recently yet again renamed) did a lot of remapping with sat imagery (and continues to do so - interpretation of sat images is rather different than aerial images, for many reasons beyond what is appropriate here, including being too lengthy). Having been involved with the system, no, the shutting off of SA wasn't due to the number of commercial units in the hands of ground troops. The reasons are again too lengthy to go into, but are discussed at length in publications like GPS World during the mid to late 1990s. When we were writing the specs for the Block III sats, we gave major consideration to the civilian uses. Some of these were adopted into the modifications of the Blocks IIR and IIF sats which are in process of being launched now, with Block III scheduled (maybe) for 2013 and later.

Hmmmm, I recently received the new Delorme PN22 for evaluation. This unit accepts sat and aerial photos, so maybe I should start including some photo interpretation in my land nav courses. Or, given the amount of skill that must be developed, just include enough cautions so people don't get too deeply in trouble. It's very easy to misread both aerial and sat photos, especially when they are false-color images involving wavelengths well outside what the human eye is sensitive to. The ones available for the Delorme (and also viewable on the newest versions of Street Atlas and Topo USA) are monochrome presentations, unlabeled as to the wavelength used.

That's exactly what struck me first as far as the original poster's OPSEC.
Also, I can see more of a need for CRD and SF support teams to use small enclosed shelters than regular SFG.
Back around Storm-1 civilian GPS units seemed better; however, even with the recent advances made, I prefer topo maps + a Cammenga as a failsafe backup ;-)