Author: Beta-TNT
For a long time, I was always wondering about one thing: there are some gears that should be in large number, but they are rare or even impossible to find in militaria market. The MOLLE canteen pouch is among them.
I’m talking about “MOLLE”, the first generation, not the common “MOLLE II”. Despite the label and color tone, most components of MOLLE and MOLLE II have no difference.
By now we’ve collected most MOLLE gears, even the rare buttpack and shotgun shell pouch, but the canteen pouch is still missing. In the general, gears like canteen pouch should have the most quantity, but MOLLE canteen pouch is an extraordinary. We even considered that dealers might confuse MOLLE with MOLLE II, but after years of chasing, we still haven’t found it.
As for the canteen pouch itself, there is an interesting fact: its NSN wasn’t assigned along with other MOLLE gears, check your 1997 dated MOLLE II canteen pouch, and you’ll only find a part number:#F205411. The real NSN (8465-01-484-0450) wasn’t assigned until 17th, Apr, 2001.
