US Army Modular Sleeping System
* Cost ££££ (£100-£120 plus postage)
* Value for Money: 5
* Ease of use: 5
* Construction: 4
* Alliness: 3
I’ll admit straight up that I didn’t buy this, I swapped it for a set of dessies from a Yank in Um Qasar. This is a great concept. The system is made up of 4 parts. A lightweight bag (green), a medium bag (black), a Gore-Tex bivvy bag (US Woodland) and a stuff sack. The lightweight bag is very similar in weight to the British issue jungle bag. The medium weight bag is not far off the bouncing bomb in its thickness. The best part about this system is the way it fits together. Both the doss bags and the bivvy bag have a heavyweight zip which runs half way along the bags on the right as you lie in it. Along the zip in all the bags are a series of poppers. You can attach the various bags together to create a sleeping system suitable to the environment you are in. The lightweight and medium-weight bags fit together to make a heavy winter bag, and all of the bags connect to the bivvy bag. The system is designed to provide comfort in temperatures ranging from 50°F to -50°F when wearing various layers of extreme cold weather clothing.
The system is made by Tennier Industries Inc. in the US. A quick look at their website show that this is actually an older system. They have an updated version in the dreaded UCP cammo and another system in Coyote which is probably for the US Marines. Looking at the coyote version I actually think it is a better system but I haven’t been able to find it commercially available. I think any kit seller who was able to import the coyote system would do very well from military, contractors and bush crafters!
The benefit of the way the system fits together is that you have one sleeping system that you can scale for all year round use and for any environment, jungle to artic. Because the bags are all attached to each other when you pull it out to set up your pit for the night you don’t have to faff about getting the bags all untwisted and the right way around in the bivvy bag. If you use a Klymit sleeping pad like I do all you have to do is lay out your doss bag, blow up the pad (5 breaths) and you’re good to go. The long zip means you only have to do up one zip and you can get out of it very rapidly if you need to.
Now the cons. It is bulky. The full system in its stuff sack is a bit bigger than an issue bouncing bomb, although it does compress down smaller. The stuff sack reduces both the length and the width of the system down to one cubic foot. Another con is that these are available only in US woodland cammo. So if you are military there might be an anal Stick Man issue. Finally, I cannot find a UK vendor for this that isn’t asking for stupid money. Vendors only seem to be on eBay in the US so you will be paying about £40 for postage on top of the cost for the system. It is money well spent though!
I love this system. It gives me complete coverage all year around. If I were to go out and buy civvy sleeping bags to cover the same temperature ranges it would cost me far in excess of this system and wouldn’t be so user friendly. I would confidently say that this is good value for money, especially as it has so much versatility. They are available here.
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