The Ephod Combat Vest, also designated variously the A10 Model Infantry Load-bearing Rig, Individual Carrying Equipment, and "New style" Load Bearing Equipment, is a personal equipment system issued to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of the State of Israel since the mid-1970s. It replaced the modular-based 1950s "Old style" tan-khaki cotton canvas equipment (similar in design to the British Army's 58 pattern webbing) and a variety of load-carrying waistcoats and assault vests used by Israeli infantry and elite units during the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1967-1970 War of Attrition, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.Katz & Volstad, Israeli Elite Forces since 1948 (1988), p. 57.
History and development The IDF load-bearing system or Ephod ("apron" or "avantail" in Hebrew) is the direct result of the long experience acquired over the years with the "commando web gear" originally worn by Israeli recon paratroopers during the War of Attrition, who made crude but comfortable Khaki or Olive Green waistcoats and assault vests incorporating many small canvas or Nylon pouches.D'Elia, Personal Load Carrying Equipment (1992), p. 38. Known as the "New style" Load Bearing Equipment, the Ephod was designed by the Israeli private firm Rabintex Industries Ltd of Herzeliya near Tel Aviv in 1975–76, who allegedly developed it from an American prototype.
Description The "New style" Load Bearing Equipment prototype presented in 1976 by Rabintex was made entirely of olive green (OG) Cordura-type nylon and consisted of wide unpadded shoulder straps or suspenders and an "X"-back harness or "yoke" system fitted with three chest/side and back panels fitted with a detachable foam rubber-padded waist-band or "belt", secured at the front by two strap-and-buckle attachment loops. One novel feature of the Ephod is that its yoke spread the weight to be borne over the shoulders and was not secured to a conventional waist belt. Its suspenders were joined in the area of the shoulder-blades by a lateral piece to which was stitched a rectangular web loop with eyelets for attaching a U.S.-type entrenching tool, a feature also found in the "Old style" web gear suspenders.
Another feature of the Ephod was its wide cushioned waist-band fitted at the back of the panels by snap buttons, which distributed the weight well all around the waist. Many Israeli soldiers in the field had found the canvas material of the IDF standard issue "Old style" web gear and the load they carried to be very uncomfortable, and so wore padding underneath the pistol belt and waist pouches;Katz & Volstad, Israeli Defense Forces since 1973 (1990), pp. 5; 52-53. this aspect was taken into consideration by the designers of the Ephod, who devised a unique system in which the ammunition pouches, the grenade carriers and other equipment rest on three foam rubber pads tied together by parachute cord lacing at four points, allowing infinite adjustment to individual size. Like the front extremities of the yoke, they were not secured to the cushioned waist-band but to the pouches instead.
The pouches came in three sets, left, right, and back. Each consists of a nylon base panel, in which a total of nine integral nylon pouches of five different sizes, comprising four large magazine pouches, two individual hand grenade carriers, one smoke grenade carrier, one First aid kit pouch and one rear pouch for carrying binoculars or night-vision equipment are stitched. All pouch flaps are fitted with Velcro Hook-and-loop fastener strips reinforced by a single metal eyelet and the larger magazine pouches each had at the lower end a nylon frog with two eyelets for additional pouches fitted with US-type M1910 hooks. In addition, the Ephod's back panel has two and the chest/side panels four snap loops for attaching the "Old style" web pistol belt and two detachable canteen pouches.
Designed to be worn over a flak vest, the Ephod Combat Vest is usually worn rather high and it can be put on and off in one piece, like a jacket. Its magazine pouches can hold up to twelve M16, IMI Galil or AK-47 series magazines, along with additional pouches for medical equipment, 7.62mm FN MAG machine gun belts, 40mm rounds and attachments for packs.Katz & Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982-84 (1985), p. 36.Katz & Volstad, Israeli Defense Forces since 1973 (1990), p. 49. In addition, the asymmetrical arrangement of ammunition of the Ephod allows increased comfort when in firing position, providing the soldier with an elbow rest when holding a rifle. These characteristics made the Ephod considerably well regarded at the time by some specialists
Variants Second-model Ephod vest A new version of the Ephod was introduced in 1980–81, in which the earlier "X"-harness shoulder yoke was replaced by an "H"-harness with a double strap-and-buckle attachment loop on the front of the carrying straps and on the side pouches' panels, in lieu of the parachute cord lacing adjusters, though the pouches' arrangement remained unchanged.
Late-model Ephod vest
Armoured Corps Web Gear When the Ephod was issued to IDF Armoured Corps crewmen in 1978, they found that the standard combat vest was very cumbersome while operating in the confines of an armoured vehicle, so a special set was developed. Based on the ChiCom AK-47 chest rig, the Ephod HaShan or Ephod Heil HaShiryon ("Armoured Corps web gear" in Hebrew) load-bearing equipment is a variation of the Ephod and consists of four frontal rectangular magazine chest pouches designed specifically for the "sitting" tank soldiers, complete with two regular pouches for rectangular canteens worn on either side.Katz & Volstad, Israeli Defense Forces since 1973 (1990), p. 56.Katz & Volstad, Battleground Lebanon (1990), Plate A4.Katz & Volstad, Israel's Cutting Edge (1990), p. 36.Katz & Volstad, Tools of the Trade – The Weapons, Gear & Uniforms of the IDF (1991), Plate B3.
Advanced Ephod
Combat use
Israeli service The Ephod made its operational début during the famous Entebbe raid in July 1976Katz & Volstad, Israeli Elite Units since 1948 (1988), p. 60.Dunstan, Israel's Lightning Strike, The raid on Entebbe 1976 (2009), p. 33. and was introduced the following year into Israeli forces,Katz & Volstad, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 2 (1988), p. 36. though its massive use by Israeli troops came only during the 1978 South Lebanon conflictRussel & Katz, Israeli Defense Forces – 1948 to the present (1985), p. 51.Campbell & Dennis, Israeli Paratroopers 1954-2016 (2018), p. 28. and the subsequent June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Latin America The Ephod also began to be marketed to foreign recipients of Israeli military aid in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first Latin American country to receive it was Nicaragua in 1977–78.Caballero Jurado & Thomas, Central American Wars 1959–89 (1990), p. 44. With the adoption of Israeli-made small-arms in 1976, the Somoza Regime ordered substantial quantities of the Ephod to equip the elite and infantry units of its Nicaraguan National Guard. Later during the 1978-79 Nicaraguan Revolution, captured Ephod vests were also worn by Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) guerrillas.
Guatemala also received the Ephod for the Guatemalan Army's Parachute Brigade and Kaibiles, while Ecuador adopted it for its Naval Infantry Corps troops and Peru acquired Ephod vests to equip its Army and Naval Infantry units. Argentina also adopted the Ephod for the Argentine Army's 8th Mountain Cazadores Company of the 8th Mountain Infantry Brigade.Rivet, La 8e Brigade de Montagne Argentine (1996), p. 41.
Middle East During the Lebanese Civil War, the pro-Israeli militias in Lebanon, the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF)Katz & Volstad, Armies in Lebanon 1982-84 (1985), pp. 40-41.Katz & Volstad, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 2 (1988), pp. 46-47.Micheletti and Debay, Liban – dix jours aux cœur des combats (1989), pp. 12; 33-38. and the South Lebanon Army (SLA)Katz & Volstad, Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 2 (1988), p. 38. also began to receive the Ephod in substantial quantities to equip their troops at the late 1970s, with captured examples eventually finding their way into the hands of militiamen from other Lebanese factions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Photographic evidence taken at the time do show the Israeli combat vest being used by fighters from the Christian Marada Brigade, the Shia Amal Movement and Hezbollah,Micheletti and Palmade, Israel-Palestine: L'appel aux armes (2000), pp. 69-73. the Druze People's Liberation Army (PLA),Abi-Chahine, The People's Liberation Army through the eyes of a lens, 1975–1991 (2019), pp. 45; 48-49; 68. the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the Lebanese ArmyMicheletti and Debay, Liban – dix jours aux cœur des combats (1989), pp. 26-31. and even the Syrian Army Commando troops stationed in the Country. The vest proved so popular during the War that the Lebanese soon began producing an unlicensed local copy, which was adopted in the mid-1990s by the Lebanese Army as standard web gear for its infantry troopsEl-Assad, Landing Zone Lebanon (2007), p. 35. and elite forces, such as the Lebanese Commando Regiment, the Counter-sabotage Regiment, the Lebanese Airborne Regiment and the Republican Guard Brigade.
Recently, Lebanese-produced Ephod vests have been encountered among regular soldiers of the Syrian Army and their adversaries of the Free Syrian Army and other rebel factions currently engaged in the ongoing civil war in Syria.
Iran also produces its own version of the Ephod since the 1980s, and Iranian soldiers were currently seen using clones of the vest, along with many other harnesses.
Asia The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) adopted in the 1980s-1990s the Ephod for its infantry, commando and special forces units equipped with the AKM assault rifle, who battled the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgency during the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009).
In the early to mid-1990s, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) began to introduce their own version of the Ephod, known as the Skeletal Battle Order (SBO), for its infantry units. Manufactured primarily by the Johsen Equipment Company of Singapore, the early models were direct copies of the original Israeli combat vest, featuring four large magazine pouches capable of accommodating eight 30-round M16S1 assault rifle magazines, two narrow side pouches meant to store pen flares, two hand grenade carriers, one smoke grenade carrier, and a small butt-pack with two smaller side pouches. Later models of the SBO combat vest replaced the metal size adjusters in the suspenders and side panels with plastic buckles, and featured larger magazine pouches designed to hold the new plastic magazines for the SAR 21 assault rifle which were more voluminous than those of the M16S1. The Ephod-based SBO continued to be issued to SAF infantry battalions until 2006–2007, when it was replaced a new model of load-bearing vest (LBV) based on the MOLLE/Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS).
Africa Photos have documented Ephod clones produced in Cuban "grey-lizard" camouflage being used by Cuban FAR forces during the Angolan Civil War and the South African Border War in the 1980s. These appear to have been produced in limited numbers and were not widely issued.Fontanellaz, War of Intervention in Angola: Volume 2 - Angolan and Cuban Forces, 1976-1983 (2019), pp. 41; 53.
Europe