Starting with a wave of goods from Warrior Assault Systems is this nice assault sized pack, the Pegasus. Coming in at around 1400 cu-in / 23 liters carrying capacity, it is a good medium size, likely considered a 1.5-day pack by most. When really stuffed it can get a bit cube-like in shape, however overall a good size to not get in the way of core body movement. Design wise there isn't really anything revolutionary or new about the Pegasus, but all the chosen worthwhile features and build quality makes it shine as a whole.
As seen on all their gear, Warrior Assault Systems doesn't pull any stops on using the best in materials as expected in a military class pack. The foundation is 1000D Cordura with Mil-Spec webbing and even ITW hardware, all good stuff. Something that is new, to me at least, is the padding used on the rear of the pack. The 3D mesh used has a mil-spec mesh main exterior, but then has this deep and porous foam inside to offer great body standoff and airflow. It truly is a great balance of getting the durable mesh on the exterior with not just padding, but padding that can breathe. The whole back panel itself has padding along with the shoulder straps to give more comfort with heavier loads. All the usual tactical features are on the straps as usual such as D-rings and a sternum strap, yet upper strap adjustment hardware exists as well to help really customize the pack fit; this usually is only seen on larger packs. As another nice attention to detail, the webbing used to make the drag handle up top, goes down the sides all the way to the bottom to maximize overall pack strength. It may be pretty uncomfortable (due to no waist strap) to hold 50 pounds of ammo in the Pegasus, but very cool to know you could if you wanted to. If you haven't noticed yet, it is a PALS webbing party in general on the exterior. There is PALS on the sides, the 2 frontal pockets, and even the bottom so one can get pretty rowdy with pouch addition options.
Getn' on to the details starting with the frontal upper compartment, there is a small loop velcro zone of about 3" x 1.5" and a single zipper sleeve pocket. The loop area is somewhat of an odd size where they may have been better off with a 5.5" x 1" nametape zone. Moving to the inside, the double zippers move nice and smooth which can be said about the zippers on the whole pack. Not to be missed are even the zipper end pull tabs to get pull strength leverage. The interior back is an admin party with many sleeve pockets for papers, writing tools, and small gadgetry. One sleeve even has a shock cord closure kinda thing, I'm not sure why it has hook velcro on both sides of the connection tab, but I suppose lets the user get creative with positioning. On the other side is a mesh sleeve opening with a single zipper for further organization options. 2 grommets are at the bottom for drainage which applies to all the major compartments of the Pegasus.
Moving down is the frontal lower compartment which also opens with double zippers. Overall simple, the shape is more rectangular to accommodate similar shaped items. The interior front is slick while the back has some sleeve pockets with elastic openings providing good small item stash zones.
Onto the big show main compartment, it opens up with double zippers in a clam-shell style to offer full access. The exterior compression straps can be used to limit this effect if desired. 2 mesh zipper pockets are on the front interior with the top one being overall slim while the lower one has some baggyness to it. These are great for general organization for gear such as medical items. Over to the back side is a simple hydration pocket zone that has an SRB closure. Since the back area is padded, one could alternatively store a small laptop / tablet back there. Additionally up top is the center hole covered by elastic and then 2 more ports with velcro flaps on the sides to offer access to any sort of hydration tube or antenna needs.
The attention to detail in general is appreciated, the smaller things like getting elastic loops for all the adjustment straps slack and when in camo, such as this one in multicam, the webbing is camo matched on all the PALS webbing. Overall the Pegasus seems to be a great example of utilizing proven modern tactical backpack design concepts; It may not dazzle with any wacky new-age features, but it will get shit done and then some.
http://www.warriorassaultsystems.com/
Approx Stats:
Main compartment - 13" x 16" x 5.5″
Frontal Upper - 9.5″ x 10″ x 2″
Frontal Lower - 9.5″ x 5″ x 2.5″
Capacity - 1400 cu-in
