Advantages of ALICE

This is not a thread to argue over ALICE and MOLLE. This is a thread to speak about the advantages of ALICE.

Now, y'all are going to say "Who uses ALICE anymore? It's all about the MOLLE now." No it's not! I use ALICE for three reasons: 1) It's cheap 2) It's maneuverable, and 3) I don't have enough money for a plate carrier yet.

I play CQB, where it's all about speed, tactics, and maneuvers. Many players at my field use plate carriers, which tire them out and slow them down. I wear an ALICE rig consisting of Y-Suspenders, a web belt, an ALICE mag pouch, two canteens and canteen pouches, and a butt pack. This is all I need on the field. I usually only go onto the field with two magazines, one in my rifle, one in my mag pouch. I keep things I won't need very often in my butt pack. I keep a bag of bbs, a feeder bottle, and a stick of beef jerky in my butt pack at all times. (Beef jerky is a great energizer to have on the field; just bite off a piece and get moving!) After I drink a canteen, I ditch it in the ready room and use the pouch as a dump pouch.

ALICE is also very comfortable. You can wear it for hours, and it won't slow you down or bother you. Some people are irritated with the ALICE clips that attach the pouches rubbing them and digging into their skin, but as of yet, I have had no problems with them.

It is fully modular, just like MOLLE.

Haha, that's all I can really think of about ALICE right now. I'll post some more later.

You should put some pictures up. I have been considering purchasing a ALICE rig for a Russian loadout but I don't have a real accurate picture of what ALICE really looks like.

I don't have a camera right now, but will these do?





How's that?

Thats just a belt with suspenders.........

Okay, then what I don't understand is why not buy a Molle Battle Belt with suspenders. And call it the day. But I understand your point.

However I would only really need ALICE if I was doing a VN Era oriented OP

I looked it up quick and this is what i found.

Insane Mercc wrote:

I looked it up quick and this is what i found.

No, that is a chest rig. Insane Mercc, I know it is just a belt with suspenders. Most American combat rigging has been a belt with suspenders system. MOLLE is the first of its kind, my friend. ALICE was used up until the Gulf War in 1991.

@LW
The reason why I bought ALICE instead of MOLLE is because it is a helluva lot cheaper. Mag pouches for $4, canteen pouches for $5, butt pack for $15... my whole set up only cost me about $40.

And it goes with my Gulf War-style loadout.

edit: Also, it's a lot more comfortable than any plate carrier I've ever tried on. I'd rather be wearing ALICE than humping an IBA.

That mannequin is uber que*r.

But anyways I like things like this because they...well...look better, and seem more practical. I mean it really has all you need, and you could add maybe a dump pouch or something if you really wanted to. ALICE rigs are just...bleh. Of course that's on opinion

Only good thing i can say about ALICE gear besides price is that it's a whole easier to put on pouches then MOLLE pouches are. Outside that i could never stand how much ALICE moved around on my rig, and it certainly isn't load bearing like MOLLE is nor as modular either.

Whats your price limit for MOLLE gear cuz there are cheap molle vests that work just as effectively for like 35 bucks. Plus this http://www.armysurpluswarehouse.com/product/molle-ii-fighting-load-carrier-vest-4600.cfm (there is another version where its zippered for the same price) vest is good for putting over bulletproof vests from the persian gulf era. The few who combat tested molle in the gulf war used this style. They just threw it over their combat armor and went on movin'. And some still do this today when they feel like being lighter.

ALICE isn't a bad thing either when its put together properly. It can feel as if its not even there. My favorite Suspender for it is the H style however, it carried the weight much more evenly in any stance than the Y. ALICE is modular in that you attach things to it as well as MOLLE. Almost all MOLLE gear has the same attachments for ALICE equipment. Its more a matter of personal preferance and MET-TC. If it wasn't practical we would not have used the same style for almost forever (belt with suspenders)

Ah, I've got some MOLLE now, my friend, but the ALICE won't be seeing the gear bag anytime soon! I'll be keeping my ALICE out for a long time. I've looked into those sort of rigs you linked and may buy one of those in the future as something light for when I need to pull recon and the like. As for using H-Suspenders, I can't say I've used them before, but it would be logical they would distribute the weight better. I think the main reason I have the Y rather than the H is because it fit my Gulf War loadout better. I've seen a lot more pics from the Desert of groundpounders using the Ys, so.....

Thanks for the info, though!

Yeah Jarhead last week I was talking to my dad about that. He said they used Y-suspenders. (Tip: not shure if you want to do this or not my dad said alot of guys had their K-Bars taped to one the front suspender things.)