Technical Plate Carrier Review: Crye AVS Plate Carrier

In 2012, Crye Precision debuted the AVS or Adaptable Vest System. The AVS would eventually replace the MBAV or Modular Body Armor Vest, which was standard issue to some SOF units of the time and already a decade old itself. The goal with the AVS was simple: full spectrum scalability load carrying that could go from low-vis to fully armored LBV. Now, roughly 12 years after the debut of the AVS, GWOT is over, threats have changed, focus has shifted, markets have evolved, and the world is a very different place than it was. Questions about how well the AVS has aged have started to emerge, so the big question now is: does the AVS have what it takes to be a contender in 2023 and beyond? Read on or watch below this installment of Qore Performance Insights to find out.

Format

A quick note on format for those of you who are new to this series: this actually is not going to be a normal plate carrier review or review video like you might be accustomed to finding on YouTube. This actually started as a way for us to answer customer questions that were asked regularly about how to integrate our thermoregulation and hydration tools from our IceAge ecosystem. As such, our format is mostly empirical. It will attempt to be as quantitative and scientific as possible. While we're not perfect, we'll make every effort to avoid sharing qualitative opinions, conjecture, etc., basically anything that can't be considered absolute fact. You guys are professionals; our job is to merely provide you with as much information as you need to make the best decisions to help you be the greatest version of yourself.

IceAge Ecosystem Integration

IceAge ecosystem integration is the first category we are going to cover since thermoregulation is the next night vision, and product integration is the genesis of these videos. The AVS is an ideal host platform for our ICEVENTS® Classic Heavy Loadout plate carrier shoulder pads. ICEVENTS® Classic will facilitate convective thermal regulation while distributing load using their unique cellular matrix honeycomb architecture.

Above: ICEVENTS® Classic Ventilated AVS Harness Pad Set for the Crye AVS Plate Carrier.

As for our AVS harness, it's as if it was made for our ICEVENTS® plate carrier ventilation pontoons. Since ICEVENTS® Classic plate carrier ventilation pontoons are hook-backed, they can be placed anywhere you want them inside the AVS harness, serving as direct one-to-one upgrades for the stock foam pads provided with the AVS. As many of you know, our ICEVENTS® technology is quite a bit different from foam, as it is 90% air by volume, antimicrobial at the molecular level, and has omnidirectional ventilation under load. The hook receptive loop lining of the AVS harness is also ideal for mounting IMS Pro internally. This unique lining makes the AVS one of a select few plate carriers on the market today capable of running IMS Pro internally, like our ICEPLATE EXO®. Under the armor mounting lets users take full advantage of the conductive thermoregulation plus hydration power of ICEPLATE® Curve. If conductive thermal regulation is not feasible, our IMS combo fits perfectly on the back in either standalone configuration via MOLLE or riding under Crye’s zip-on back panels for external hard cell hydration only. 

IceAge Ecosystem Integration Comparison Chart

Weight:

Dry Weight

Weight matters because it is persistent and impacts human performance in ways that few other attributes can replicate. Dry, the AVS plate bags only tip the scales at 21.2 ounces. The AVS harness is even heavier than the plate bags themselves, coming in at 23.15 ounces. Add on the AVS Detachable Flap M4 at 4 ounces, and that brings the total weight of the AVS system you see here to 48.35 ounces. This makes the AVS the heaviest plate carrier we have reviewed to date by a significant margin.

Wet Weight

Wet weight is an under-examined and underappreciated technical consideration for plate carrier design and selection, the obvious reasons being maritime operations and, well, sweat. In our testing, the Crye Precision AVS weighs 70.95 ounces wet. This means the AVS gains 22.6 ounces when submerged. To put this in perspective, the AVS gains more water weight when submerged than the dry weight of the Ferro Concepts FCPC V5, Crye Precision SPC, or our ICEPLATE EXO®. To learn more about plate carrier weight, you can check out our plate carrier weight calculator, something that is a very useful tool and that our team did a great job putting together.

For those of you curious about our experimental design, all of our wet weight tests are conducted in our climate-controlled office to account for evaporation, sunlight, and other external factors that require consistency.

Materials:

As you might expect from a plate carrier designed more than 12 years ago, the AVS is built from fairly standard and traditional materials, all of which are made right here in America: Nylon, Velcro, tweave, felt hook receptive loop, and metal.

Thermal Transmittance:

Thermoregulation:

Like most modern plate carriers and armor systems, the AVS does not have any conductive or convective thermoregulation systems organically integrated into the design. Crye Precision offers foam pads that attach via Velcro all over the AVS. These pads add some standoff ventilation but ultimately add to heat buildup because foam is an insulator commonly found in things like beverage coolers. This allows for easy mounting of ICEVENTS® and IMS Pro, as mentioned earlier in our IceAge ecosystem integration segment.

Unique Features:

The AVS harness is designed to disperse heavy loads across the user's entire back and shoulders. The AVS is also able to scale up or down to match the mission at hand with multiple configurations:

• AVS base configuration
• Strap AVS plate carrier configuration
• Two-band skeletal cummerbund
• AVS assault configuration
• Three-band skeletal cummerbund

The AVS utilizes Crye’s zip-on back panel as well as the AVS-specific front bag flaps. The front plate bag of the AVS uses airlight and AVS-specific placard mounting. On the backside, the rear plate bag sports PALS/MOLLE and the same YKK number 10 Vislon zipper adapters found on the JPC and the SPC for full interoperability within the Crye Precision family. As with the JPC and the SPC, the zipper length is proprietary to Crye, even though the number 10 YKK Vislon zipper is rather ubiquitous. The front plate bag does not have the ability to accept Swift clip or G-hook enabled placards. Out of the gate, the AVS comes in these variety sizes here: small, medium, large, and extra large. It also comes in the standard colorways that you see here: Black, MultiCam, Coyote, and Ranger Green.
 

Sizing Adjustability:

For AVS users, pick the plate size that fits you and go with that size for the rest of the carrier. You have a generous amount of adjustability, but the harness will work best if you pick the correct size. While Crye Precision does not specifically state what plates fit in each plate bag, the sizing is roughly the same as standard ESAPI plate sizing and comes in Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large.

Size

Accepted Plate Sizes

*Use of 10" x 12" Medium Shooter Cut Armor Plates thinner than 1.1" may require sewing additional Velcro fields to the bottom plate retention flap (see instructions and placement in product photo gallery).

Country of Origin:

Country of origin, commonly abbreviated as COO, is an incredibly important consideration when it comes to plate carrier selection. COO is a dependable but not absolute indicator of innovation, quality, and craftsmanship. According to the Crye Precision website, the AVS, like all Crye Precision products, is made right here in America from American materials.

Country of Origin Comparison Chart

Price:

According to the Crye Precision website, pricing breaks down like this for the components we used and weighed in this video. The AVS is a bit of an outlier in that this selection represents a small sample of the AVS family of accessories, which is rather vast. The components we tested are the AVS Standard Plate Pouch Set which comes in at $341.30, the AVS Harness at $259.30, the AVS Detachable Flap M4 Flat at $60.80, all of which combined to bring the grand total for these components to $661.40.

Conclusion:

So that's going to do it for our technical overview of the Crye Precision AVS or Adaptive Vest System. We hope you guys enjoyed it, found it helpful, and to stay up to date on all the latest in all aspects of thermoregulation, don't forget to follow us on Instagram @QorePerformance and subscribe to our Launchpad email list here. Until next time, Stay Frosty.