How Many Items Can a Harness Support

It can be difficult to say how many items a harness can support or are designed to support because each nation has a different method of attaching equipment, or regulations may dictate the placement of equipment in certain places on the harness. As a general rule of thumb a harness can support:

• Four items on the chest, two on the belt and two on the straps over the chest. Normally these items will be ammunition pouches. Long pouches such as those used to carry submachine gun magazines take up more space and hang from both the belt and the strap over the chest, in this case the front can only support two items.
• One item over the hip of each side of the soldier, such as an entrenching shovel over the left hip with a pistol holster over the right hip.
• A single large “backpack” style of item can be attached to the middle of the back.
• Over the rump two small pouches can be attached to the belt or a single oblong item such as the British entrenching tool and carrier.
• Water bottles and their carriers can be hung from the belt or attached to another item from a lose strap.