STRIKE-HOLD - the international military and tactical blog

New Polish Army experimental camouflage pattern – MAPA

Like it or loathe it, everybody’s into new camouflage these days.  And while some countries are taking the path of least resistance and adopting MultiCam, or a derivative of it, other countries are taking a more in-depth approach. Poland is an example of the latter – although they do also...

Hill People Gear “Prairie Belt” load carrying system

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Strike-Hold The guys at Hill People Gear are not your average gear designers, and the company is not your average gear maker either.  For a start, they don’t describe themselves as a tactical gear company… “At Hill People Gear, our focus is timeless designs...

MiliPol Qatar: XSR Special Purpose Boat

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Strike-Hold This company’s booth wasn’t actually manned when I stopped by, nor did they have any marketing literature in the booth. But they did have this poster for this rather spiffy looking range of special purpose boats…   This entry was posted in Maritime...

MiliPol Qatar: Sillinger

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Strike-Hold Coming up for air now, let’s take a look at a couple of vendors displaying surface craft solutions at MiliPol Qatar 2012. First up is French company Sillinger, part of the Groupe Marck group of companies.  Sillinger was founded in 1962 and in...

MiliPol Qatar: MKE – small arms made in Turkey

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Strike-Hold The Turkish state-owned arms-maker MKE had a big mural on the back of their stand advertising the fact that they’ve been making cannons since 1452(!) – but these days they’re also well-known for producing licensed variants of weapons that HK isn’t interested in...

MiliPol Qatar – SEABOB Black Shadow 730

Posted on 08/10/2012 by Strike-Hold It might look like a cruise missile that has lost its wings, or like a giant tadpole, or a short torpedo – it might even remind you of something from a Bond film, or a sci-fi masterpiece.  At any rate, this thing is very real...

MiliPol Qatar – NAUTIRAID SB Commando MK VI folding kayak

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Strike-Hold When we think of the middle east we tend to think about the land-locked seas of sand, and maybe overlook the military significance of the seas around the region.  Fortunately, there are plenty of things on display at MiliPol Qatar that involved getting...

MiliPol Qatar – Camo that TacticalHipster would approve of?

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Strike-Hold I spotted this little gem hanging on the wall at the NAUTIRAID / SQUALE stand as well. Now, when’s the last time you saw anything in current ue sporting “Duck Hunter” camouflage?  Maybe it just goes to prove, leave something long enough and...

MiliPol Qatar 2012 opens

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Strike-Hold The ninth edition of MiliPol Qatar opened today at the Doha Exhibition Center.  MiliPol Qatar is an internal security industry exhibition focussing on the Middle East region, with participation by 265 companies from 38 countries this year – 11 of these countries are...

Royal Marine receives award for counter-piracy operations

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Strike-Hold A Royal Marine whose ship chased down a pirate mothership in the Gulf and captured more than 30 pirates has been awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service (QCVS). Major Adam Whitmarsh, aged 33, was based on Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ship Fort...