The rise and fall of the Osprey armour with Assistant Curator, Scot Hurst
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Join Scot Hurst, Assistant Curator of Arms & Armour, this week as he looks at the famous Osprey armour used by British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Find out about its origins, pros and cons, and how armour has developed since.
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I haven't heard anything good about VIRTUS kit except "At least it's not Osprey."
A guy who is currently fighting in Ukraine (valgear channel) reckons the Virtus helmet is the best design out there, well it would be if the straps would stop breaking.
I don't know what the Israeli company who manufactures the stuff is doing but the quality of their textile products is really bad.
@@mr.stotruppen8724 Cashing in profits. Reselling those straps over and over and over KEKW
You know what they are doing and where.
I've worked with 10,000 of virtus sets, although never used it for its intended purpose, and it's actually a pretty good system. If set up properly most soldiers find the system incredibly user able.
Another change with the mk 4 was the ability to fit small side plates in pockets, which helped offset the lack of protection there.
You could do that with the Mk 1, there just want proper pockets for it
The preferred armour in Tarkov. No sweating to death mechanic in the game yet though :)
Cool video thanks.
Please don't give BSG ideas
I enjoyed watching an armour video on the Royal Armouries channel, thank you!
so Ukraine vet here: i got osprey full kit with esapi plates, and side plates in 2022. everyone was envy me. but it wasn't really functional or comfortable. i bought myself some lighter plate carier and plates. but now we spend most of our time underground, so we use my osprey only with soft armor when going to shit or to place uav.
I hate the Virtus stuff and actually missed the Osprey stuff, it was heavy and the version in this video wasn't great but the later MTP version wasn't bad just still very heavy but I promise you after a month of patrolling twice a day and sometimes 3 contacts a day with the enemy, it didn't feel that heavy.
One of the reasons troops didn't like the Osprey was the Molle wasn't standardised to the rest of the market. You couldn"t take just any pouch and fit it to the vest. That was corrected with the mrk4. A lot of troops retained the single strap to hang the L85 from. It was a good idea.
Part of the reason they got rid of the external plate pouches, especially the top opening, was that if soldiers were caught in IED blasts, the plate would be blasted up and shatter the soldier’s jaw bone.
I love that they made it out of camouflage-print material... and then went ahead and put a huge, bold, instantly resolvable pattern of evenly spaced parallel stripes on it with all the strapping. I know that in practice the idea was that most of it would be covered up with pouches and equipment, but even so...
Interesting to note; I wore that very version of Mk3 Osprey armour in Afghanistan in 2010 and it was standard practice for us at the time to use the smaller ceramic ballistic plates that would previously be used on the front and back of ECBA and fit them in the side panels of the osprey to provide protection under the arms.
The fact the plates fitted perfectly suggests it was by design (but thats a big assumption for the British MOD)
I saw someone else in the comments saying it apparently was by design
I spent a few weeks at np aerospace making the ballistic plates.
These take proprietary plates, not SAPI plates
My thought as soon as I saw those weird ass plates. No way that's sapi cut haha
Osprey didn’t use Sapi plates, these are still in use with Virtus.
He does show the proprietary plate on camera. He seems to think "SAPI" is a generic term for "ballistic plate", "strike plate" or "ceramic plate". It isn't.
SAPI plates (10x12 inches) do fit in the osprey mk4 at least
@ 10x12" commercial plates are different to SAPI too
I find it interesting that people complain this bodyarmor was heavy when medieval knights were perfectly happy to wear easily twice as much weight in armor without nearly as much fuss. Shows how important a sense of clear and present danger is to inspiring soldiers to appreciate their armor. When your danger is a bunch of guys with big slashing and bludgeoning weapons running at you, there is no question why one wants the most armor they can literally carry on their body. When your danger is an unseen rifleman or an unheard artillery shell, it seems easier to feel like one doesn't really "need" that heavy vest until it is too late.
Eehh… Not quite. Yes, medieval armour would have been heavier. It also would have been fitted to the wearer, who was usually paying a great deal of money to get it custom made. Wearing medieval armour effectively and for long periods of time takes training, but ideally the armour itself wasn’t any more debilitating than going armourless. It doesn’t really paint the image of suffering through it for a bit of extra surviveability.
The MkII armour had a zip and was a lot easier to access the plate, however when you were hit by an explosion the plate could potentially rip through the zip and crack you in the head. So for MkIII and III* they removed the zip and made it accessible only from underneath, something that would carry over to IV.
I actually preferred III* to IV, the side plates offered more protection but left me with some nasty welts on my hips.
I still get back pains from wearing it. Impossible to shoot in the prone because your shoulders rase up
I think you meant Uni-Directional not Omni-Directional?
I never complained about the Weight of my body Armor on my tour's of Iraq (06-07) and Afghanistan (09) the issue most of us infantry guys was facing was have to carry bulky Ecm kit....this really restricted our mobility, Particularly in Afghanistan were the Ied threat was almost always pressure plate or commend wire Ieds...Ecm could never counter that.
A couple of points worth noting.
1st HRH Prince Harry wore a BalckHawk plate carrier not Osprey, which was brought specifically for 16 AA Brigade.
2nd Osprey was never officially adopted as the standard body armor of the British Military. It was a UOR intended solely foe use in theatre and peoples covers where burnt on departure. Hence why so many where issued, as someone who may have done three tours would have been issued three set's. Although post Herrick sets where issued to individuals on a permanent bases but technically ECBA was still the standard.
3rd Therefore Virtus never formally replaced osprey. Istead it replaced ECBA and the PLCE system. As Virtus is now issued as individual issue kit and those who are issued it as part of a tour retain it for the rest of their career, including reserves. Although this often doesn't happen in reality.
4th it was only the Army, Marimes and RAF Regiment that brought into Virtus and as such, at least when i was working with it, Navy and RAF personal were technically not allowed to receive it. With Osprey still being retained for their use.
how to find more up in arms
iconic body armour what is he talking about? When I was in the army we didn't need body armour, no knee pads, no safety glasses, or hearing protection.
What? What did you say? Speak up I can't read your lips, wait, wait I need to sit down now. Okay, now what did you say???
Remember: Your hearing loss is not service related 😆
Ill die on the hill that osprey mk4a is a good set
Just wondering Do you guys have Variable Body Armour in your collection? A Vietnam era body armour with rifle rated Plates?
show us the new armour!!!
That photo of Prince Harry shows him in a Blackhawk plate carrier 👀
Wonder how much Osprey charged MoD for each rig?
Ecba but with an either spartan freeman armour plate, or the small chicken plates used in the Vietnam war would be the optimum armour for Ukraine
This was developed as a result of the death of a soldier that was told to turn in his armor and NOT the failure of that armor? I’m not understanding. How do they go from death resulting from Quartermaster stupidity to the need to develop new armor as a result? Military logic!🙄
At the beginning of the war in Iraq our Military as normal did not have enough sets of body armor for front line troops, so to get enough for them others had to hand in there armor so it could be reissued. So when people died as a result the MOD decided perhaps it might be look better on the news if they ordered new kit. Dont even look into the shortage of ammunition that left soldiers getting killed as they had at best 2 or 3 mags and ran out in firefights.
The standard issued body armor was ECBA. Which was both unsuitable and in short supply anyway. So osprey was purchased to alleviate both concerns and was a theater issue only item.
The talkban incorporating the lack of side armour into their strategy sounds like one of those stories, like the Japanese waiting for pings from American rifles before charging...
Yeah, you'd only get one shot at the side before everyone turned and had the armour facing the threat.
I have a MK4 Osprey for airsoft and i can confirm that jesus christ you get hot in the summer. And thats a british summer at 20 degrees let alone bloody afganistan. Still love it. Anyone know where to get a cheap virtus set though 😅
You get blown off your feet with airsoft, I imagine?
@@johnnunn8688 it can certainly take alot fuckin outta ya
Ecba was ok at least you could wear it under your smock and have a hope of wearing plce
There's a lot of hafted weapons on the racks there. How do ypu curators stop these very straight poles from developing bends ?
A very interesting look at the body armour ... Looks awful to wear in hot climates or when doing strenuous exercise. Poor soldiers. Def. earn their pay!
I'd imagine, as with most galleries and museums of decent scale, that the climate controls are top-notch, particularly in the storage areas.
Thank You
After all this time, the wood has stopped contracting.
@ No need to thank me, I'm really only making an educated guess. But, saying that, I can't imagine a museum that specialises in mostly wood and metal artifacts doesn't have pretty strict controls around temperature and humidity.
"...Retired from Service..."😂... As there isn't enough Virtus to go round, Osprey is still issued... Typical MOD. Keep it cheap...keep it going....
What about exhaustion and overheating? Full body armour gives you best protection but I know from a back then G8 protest strategy that the police were out of stamina very quickly after running around a lot. I also heard stories about soldiers being exhausted after a lot of physical exercise.
Weight was/is a major issue. Osprey weighed 16kg on its own and a basic patrol load weighed at least 45-50kg for us in Iraq 08/09.
AYO BRUH!
Forget the armour the real problem with the brits is lack of lefty compatibility. Screw bullpups, traditional layouts, and ambi controls all the way
Is this coming from actual experience or just armchair warrior sonny
I'm left handed and served 14 years, and never had a single issue.
Sure but you train around, and if your right eye dominant but left handed like me, learning to shoot right handed is a bonus long term.
Lefty compatibility? Umm... what's next? turban friendly? or maybe 'allahu akbar' stitching... bri'ish problems yea?
As a lifelong shooter on joining the Army I trained on the SLR/FAL and being left handed I qualified as a marksman with it from the left shoulder, when we transitioned to the SA/80 "which was junk" I was issued the LSW version and then went on to once again from the right shoulder to qualify. the only time there is a issue with the SA/80 only being fired from the right is around right handed street junctions were you need to expose much more of your torso to cover the angle, other than that there is no difference that training does not fix.