500N
The so called 'LAND 125' magazine pouches, often issued to members about to deploy, don't really fit the F88 magazine. These fit the STANAG magazines as used by the M4 / M16 family. We can fit F88 mags if a little knick is made in the top of the side wall of the pouch .... but that is forbidden.
And speaking of forbidden - in 2009 (? late 2008) it became forbidden to modify the standard F88 pouch as worn on belt rig (ie not the LAND 125 pouches, but the old-style pouches). Most soldiers cut out the dividers in the F88 mag pouches, and up till 2009 CPLs at Kapooka almost universally told the recruits to cut the dividers out. Thousands upon thousands of pouches had to be sent back to Q Stores all over the country, to be replaced with new
unmodified pouches.
Skip forward a year or so, and LO AND BEHOLD Chief of Army again permitted soldiers to cut out the dividers from their F88 pouches
Sounds like a petty little thing, doesn't it? But it's a great example on a small scale that affects almost EVERY soldier in our curious little army. But it's an example of idiocy repeated again and again on far more frightening scales.
From pouches to boots to packs to cold / wet weather ensemble to replacement tactical medium B vehicles to the M113 debacle to Sea Sprite.
AND I WANT MY *#%&ING BERET BACK 