Gen. David Petraeus Likes His Camelbak

On June 15, 2010, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander of the Central Command (which includes Iraq) spent the day testifying before Congress on various issues. In the course of doing so, he presented Congress with a Camelbak hydration pack, explaining how it worked and praising it. Long known for its hydration packs for sporting and recreational enterprises, Camelbak nows offers a full range of hydration packs specifically designed for the military. Not only the American military, but a number of foreign ones have also contracted with Camelbak for hydration packs and other related military equipment offered by the company.

Most of the military hydration packs are large units, fairly similar to some of the larger – and most popular – hydration packs offered for recreational purposes like the M.U.L.E. and the H.A.W.G. However these tend to come in standard military camouflage and have a number of more military specific features and pockets. Larger military hydration packs include the BFM, the Motherlode, the Talon, and the TriZip. These are large, full backpacks that can be substituted for other similar military issue packs that lack hydration systems. Further these packs are all designed to work smoothly with the web gear and body armour as used today.

There are also a number of smaller hydration packs that only hold the bladder/reservoir and little bit of additional gear. A good example of this type of military hydration system is the Camelbak Ambush. This particular unit carries a three litre reservoir and has single front pocket which is large enough to carry MREs (military issue Meals Ready to Eat), a first aid kit, or important communications gear. Despite the fact that the Ambush and a number of similar packs all are worn on the back, they are much smaller and easier to carry than the large, full packs described above. These are for quick runs into the field.

After this, Camelbak also offers a number of very small reservoir carriers that are designed to attach to standard issue military web gear and body armour. These include the ArmorBak, the HotShot, and the Pakteen among others. The primary advantage of these packs is that they carry water, but do not have to be carried on the user’s back. In fact, most of these are designed to be attached to almost any part of the soldier’s regular gear; thereby offering a lot more carrying options than those specifically designed to be worn on the back.

Camelbak has also designed a whole line of additional military products. These include special reservoirs that are designed to meet military specifications for protection against chemical or biological weapons. These military reservoirs come in a myriad of variations, but the primary lines are the XP and the OMEGA (like the name of the civilian reservoir). These also come with a lot of additional connection options meant to work with military gear, like special connectors meant to allow safe hydration through a standard issue gas mask.