Technical Plate Carrier Review: LBT 6094 (London Bridge Tactical 6094 Plate Carrier)

In May 2011, Operation Neptune Spear took the LBT 6094 from an obscure plate carrier known only to some of the most elite special operators in America to one of the most famous plate carriers in the world. Seemingly overnight, the LBT 6094 became a household name to conventional armed military and law enforcement professionals, freedom loving citizens, airsoft enthusiasts, military history buffs, and video gamers alike. A tried and true design, the LBT 6094 reflects the best of early GWOT load-bearing technology. 

It has been over 12 years since the LBT 6094, protecting hand-picked Red Squadron operators packed into America’s secretive and extremely hi-tech “Stealth Hawks” on a nearly moonless Pakistani night, stepped out of the shadows and into the limelight. Technology, design and construction techniques have evolved significantly since then. This begs the question: how does the original LBT 6094 stack up against modern plate carrier designs and technology? Read on or watch below to find out.

Above: Mas Grey LBT 6094 QRC V2 plate carrier with IMS Versa Combo mounted internally for cooling, heating and hydration. MultiCam Tropic Thyrm Darkvault and Esstac Triple M4 and pistol mag placard also mounted.

Format

If this is your first time reading one of our Technical Plate Carrier Reviews, this is an important note. These are not traditional “reviews.” We started doing them to answer frequently asked customer questions about how to integrate our IceAge Ecosystem of thermoregulation and hydration tools with various plate carriers on the market today. As such, our format is largely empirical. It attempts to be as objective and quantitative as possible. While we are not perfect, we make every effort to avoid sharing anything that is qualitative, subjective, opinion, or conjecture. You guys are grown ups and professionals. Our only goal is to provide you the information you need to make decisions that help you be the greatest version of yourself. 

IceAge Ecosystem Integration

Thermoregulation is the next frontier of human performance enhancement. This is a foundational principle for us here at Qore Performance. As such, integration of our IceAge Ecosystem of thermoregulation and hydration tools is the origin of this INSIGHTS series. IceAge Ecosystem augmentation supercharges the capabilities of older plate carriers, helping them stay relevant and even out-perform some of the newest plate carrier designs on the market today.

While the lack of organic thermoregulation capabilities is where the LBT 6094 starts to show its age, it is an ideal candidate for two of our newest additions to the IceAge Ecosystem: IMS Versa and CATAMARAN. IMS Versa facilitates internal mounting of our ICEPLATE® Curve for conductive thermoregulation plus hydration to the inside of any plate bag with an external MOLLE field. CATAMARAN uses largely the same mounting system to facilitate the use of our ICEVENTS® Classic Plate Carrier Ventilation Pontoons for convective thermoregulation. 

Above: LBT 6094 equipped with IMS Versa and ICEPLATE® Curve Combo for plate carrier cooling, heating and hydration. The front plate bag has CATAMARAN mounted with ICEVENTS® Classic Plate Carrier Ventilation Pontoons for stand off ventilation.

While ICEVENTS® Aero Minimalist Plate Carrier Shoulder Pads will work with the LBT 6094, ICEVENTS® Classic Heavy Loadout Plate Carrier Shoulder Pads are better suited to the LBT 6094 given its full duty/heavy loadout orientation. Both ICEVENTS® Aero and ICEVENTS® Classic will facilitate convective thermoregulation for your shoulders while distributing load - a capability unique to our ICEVENTS® technology.

The lack of full loop Velcro fields or MOLLE on the inside of the plate bags means the LBT 6094 limits our IMS and IMS Pro to external hard cell hydration mode on the rear plate bag only. 

IceAge Ecosystem Integration Comparison Chart

Weight:

Few things impact human performance more than weight. Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain…we’ve all heard it. We all know it. 

The LBT website lists the 6094 as weighing 3.13 pounds or 50.08 ounces, but it does not specify the configuration or size for this weight. In our in-house testing, our size medium LBT 6094 tips the scales at 38.85 ounces dry. For context, a pound is 16 ounces which is also the approximate weight of a loaded 5.56 magazine. In other words, for every 16 additional ounces of dry weight in your plate carrier, you are potentially sacrificing 30 rounds of 5.56 NATO ammunition.

To find out how this weight compares to carriers like our ICEPLATE EXO®, Crye Precision AVS, and others, you can click here to check out our Plate Carrier Weight Calculator. The data is super interesting and the guys did a great job putting it together.

The 6094 can be compared directly to all previously reviewed carriers from our "Best Plate Carriers of 2023” video and article below:

Plate Carrier Dry Weights

Plate Carrier Wet Weights

Wet weight matters. Whether salt water or sweat, the ability of a plate carrier to repel/shed water weight and to do so quickly has a dramatic impact on operator performance. The wet weight of the LBT 6094 came in at 68.75 ounces. This means the LBT 6094 retained 29.9 ounces of water or roughly the same weight as 60 rounds of 5.56 or two loaded magazines in water retention. 

For us super nerds out there, this is what the distribution of the LBT 6094 wet weight looks like across the constituent components:

Shoulder Pads: 2.45 ounces each or 4.9 ounces total for the pair

Carrier: 63.85 ounces

 If you're familiar with any of our earlier entries in this series, you know that our experimental design is simple. It is the same for all PCs we test in this series: submerge carrier in water for 60 minutes, remove and hang dry for 60 seconds. Weigh the carrier. We conduct all of these tests inside our office to make sure external variables like sunlight, wind, etc. are not present. Our scale is always zeroed to account for the weight of the bin.

Materials:

What materials did you use to build a plate carrier 15 years ago? 500D Cordura nylon, Velcro, and nylon webbing. The LBT 6094 is made from simple, reliable, materials that are still in use today, even if they are not cutting-edge or high-tech, they are proven.

Thermal Transmittance:

What exactly is Thermal Transmittance and why should any of us care? What does it have to do with plate carriers?

Thermal Transmittance is the transfer of heat through matter. In our case, that matter is the body-facing section of a plate carrier plate bag.  If a wall or a plate bag is well-insulated, it will have low Thermal Transmittance. This is ideal for a home, car, or cold weather jacket as they are designed to protect you from the elements. If that same wall or plate bag is poorly insulated, it will have high Thermal Transmittance. This is ideal for active or athletic apparel: think running clothes, PT gear, combat uniforms, or anything you wear when under heavy athletic exertion where your body needs to dump excess heat generated from effort. 

Since kit is already insulating by nature, you want to find gear, especially plate carriers and body armor, that have the highest possible Thermal Transmittance. In other words, you want to find plate carriers and body armor that have the minimum amount of insulation. This will allow your body’s natural thermoregulation mechanisms to work as efficiently as possible and for you to control your body temperature independent of your kit.

Preserving this natural function decreases the possibility of you becoming a heat casualty, keeping you in the fight and increasing survivability for you and your team. Some plate carriers, like our ICEPLATE EXO®, or upgrades like our IMS Versa, IMS Pro, and CATAMARAN can even augment your body’s natural thermoregulation mechanisms, boosting your performance in the process.

If you’d like to learn the basic Methods of Heat Transfer and how they apply to your gear, check out the awesome infographics we put together in our INSIGHTS blog article titled “The Methods of Heat Transfer”.

This is the Experimental Design for our Thermal Transmittance testing: 

1. FLIR camera surface reading of the body facing side of the plate bags at room temperature
2. Place a single ICEPLATE® Curve, fresh out of the freezer, into the same plate bag
3. Close plate bag, place a Tencate Level III hard armor plate on top of the plate bag for 30 seconds to simulate the effect of putting on the plate carrier. Use short exposure time to test efficiency, not capacity. 
4. Remove the Tencate Level III hard armor plate from the surface of the subject plate bag
5. Take new FLIR surface temperature reading

What do these numbers mean? The smaller the spread between the Initial or Baseline Surface Temperature and the surface reading at room temperature, the lower the Thermal Transmittance of that plate bag. Plate carriers with these readings will trap and retain more heat, making you hotter. The larger the spread between Initial or Baseline Surface Temperature and the surface reading at room temperature, the higher the Thermal Transmittance of that plate carrier. Plate bags with these larger spreads are better at removing heat to let your body’s thermoregulation mechanisms work as normally as possible. 

The LBT 6094 has an initial or baseline surface temperature of 73 degrees Fahrenheit and and ICEPLATE® Inside surface temperature of 62 degrees Fahrenheit, creating a Thermal Shift of 11 degrees Fahrenheit. 

This is how the LBT 6094 stacks up against the other plate carriers we’ve tested: 

A brief explainer: A smaller difference between the baseline and ICEPLATE® temperatures indicates poor thermal transmittance. Conversely, a larger difference means better heat dissipation. A low number signifies a warmer experience, while a high number indicates a cooler one.

Above: LBT 6094 Plate Carrier with CATAMARAN mounted with ICEVENTS® Classic Plate Carrier Ventilation Pontoons for stand off ventilation.

Unique Features:

While the LBT 6094 is one of the heaviest carriers we’ve ever tested, it is also packed with more standard features than most carriers and has a number of features that are unique, especially in early GWOT. This list of unique features includes left and right radio pouches native to the cummerbund, side SAPI pouches integrated into the cummerbund, loop Velcro at the top of the plate bag for soft armor augmentation, some admin pouches, a Kangaroo Pouch and almost as much cable management capability as the HSP Thorax, which was designed almost 20 years after the 6094 was born.
 

Attachment Mechanisms:

The attachment mechanisms on the LBT 6094 are simple: Velcro and MOLLE. That’s it. The original LBT 6094 does not have SwiftClip compatibility or zip on back panels. Later variants such as the QRC, V2 6094 do incorporate SwiftClips however.

Variety:

When it comes to variety, the LBT 6094 is available in Coyote Brown, Ranger Green, Black, Woodland, OD, MAS Gray, and MultiCam. 

As far as sizes, the LBT 6094 is available in S, M, L, XL.

Sizing Adjustability:

MEPC offers five sizes: 8x10, Small, Medium, Large, and X Large.

Size

Sizing Adjustability

The Shoulders and Cummerbund allow for a wide range of adjustability. As you can see here, the LBT 6094 has a 19.5” length of Velcro on the shoulders and 12” of adjustability in the cummerbund.

Plate Bags:

While the LBT website does not specify what shape/style of armor plates the 6094 can accommodate, it appears that the plate carrier size corresponds to the armor plate size. The plate bags appear to be able to accommodate SAPI/ESAPI and Swimmer Cut armor plates of Level IV thickness.

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:

A product's COO can shed light on its quality, innovation, and craftsmanship. According to the LBT, the 6094 is made in America from American materials.

Country of Origin Comparison Chart

Price:

This is the last and least important consideration when selecting your plate carrier because, well, we are talking about your life here. The LBT 6094 is still manufactured by LBT, but it is now called the Modular Plate Carrier. The 6094G is listed on the LBT website for $573.28 as of the writing of this script on 18 OCT 2023.

Conclusion:

That’s going to do it for us and our LBT 6094 overview. Now that you’ve had a chance to learn all about the technical details of the 6094 and how it compares to modern plate carrier performance data in our “Best Plate Carriers of 2023” article and video, we want to know your thoughts: is the 6094 still relevant and has it stood the test of time? Or, do you think it is time for this old war horse to be put out to pasture? Let us know in the comments below. 

We hope you enjoyed the video and that it was helpful. If you’re looking to see the latest in All-Aspect Thermoregulation don’t forget to follow us on Instagram at @qoreperformance and subscribe to our LaunchPad email list to join us in Building A Superhuman Future.

Until next time, Stay Frosty.