The current market in the US has a high demand for micro fight type chest rigs that it's come to the point where no one thinks about sustainability anymore.
To me sustainability is to have greater than four mags, ability to carry water and other essential utilities. Often times I see micro fight chest rigs being outfitted with large side pouches to carry large Nalgene bottles and PRC-152 radios and whatever equipment that overloads a micro fight chassis. The micro fight has a place in the world of modern equipment but its modularity has a limit at some point and will see diminishing returns. Everyone has neglected the existence of purpose built equipment.
The Platatac Mk.4 Peacekeeper is in essence what I think is a proper fighting chest rig. For its size you have a chest rig made of modern materials and the integrated pouches overall makes for large but light design.
Outfitted with three double stack mag pouches in the middle with flap closure and two large side pockets enough to fit a large Nalgene or large radio like the PRC-148/152. There is additional molle for any add-on pouches of your choice, or as a space to hook things like gloves on a carabiner. The mag pouches have elastic around them which offers light but modest retention while the primary retention method is the flap and velcro.
Large radio/utility pouch and a small zippered pocket on the outside.
A short long horizontal pouch which would be suitable for charges, tourniquets, chemlights, and other objects of similar profile but Platatac does offer the Mk.4 Peacekeeper Slick which does not have this horizontal pouch and deletes the extra molle space.
On the backside you have three large mesh pockets, the center pocket being the largest and the only one with a velcro closure. Underneath you have a narrow velcro section which can be used to mount dangler style pouches offered by Platatac or you can take existing pouches from a different manufacturer and modify them. Here I chose to make my own little experimental dangler type mag pouch for fast emergency reloads compared to using the flap pouches.
Platatac offers these with a X harness as well as a H harness. I chose to run with the X harness because I have some intention to wear this rig over a slick plate carrier as a option and have found X harnesses to be easier to work with in that regard but this is not a replacement for my main plate carrier. Shoulder pads are not too necessary but I had some Maxpedition pads lying in storage and it didn't seem to hurt to add them and they feel much nicer .
Will this replace the backpack/rucksack? No. Mission drive the purpose of your equipment after all but I believe something like this will last you a good while in the field. While both the Platatac Mk4 Peacekeeper and the plethora of micro fight chassis chest rigs are ultimately load bearing equipment it's not exactly a fair comparison, however for sustainability and access to more mags at the ready the Platatac will be the choice to pick.
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