m/85 combat belt

Taisteluvyö in Finnish, or "tetsarit" as the Finnish soldiers have nicknamed it. Despite that it has been designated a combat belt it is actually more like a harness. It has a wide comfortable hip belt, much like the israeli Ephod. And just as the Ephod it distributes the weight of the carried load proportionally over the upper body. The wide hip belt also ensures that the pouches doesn´t "jump and rattle" as easily as on a pistolbelt-typed webbing such as the American ALICE. On m/85 the soldier can adjust the combat belt with 11 straps to get a individual perfect fit. The setup of the pouches is quite uniquely Fnnish. Two large pouches in front and one large pouch with 3 pockets in the back. The backpouch can be removed as can be seen on the right picture below, which is done by some units, such as the BMP-1/2 infantry squads, by obvious reasons. But it is used by most of the units, together with the small tube-formed rucksack which is used as an assault pack. It is also easy to fasten more equipment on the combat belt, such as a knife, a squad radio and so on. It is made by the Finnish company Savotta.


- Picture © Finnish Defence Forces


Back side of the m/85 combat belt clearly showing the comfortable padded belt. Also visible on the picture is a medic´s
(Finnish: Lääkintämies) bag and his 7.62 RK 62 assault rifle and m/62 helmet. The small tube-formed rucksack of 30 litres
is also attached to the backpouch.

Usual peacetime gear carried

First front pouch: One water bottle and a tri-fold spade
Second front pouch: magazines, handgrenades, cartridge boxes
Backpouch: gasmask, mess kit with cutlery, wet weather cloth.
Weight with these items: approximately 11.5 kg