When looking at the lines of equipment, your most important gear is the belt.
In a tactical environment your belt won’t not only hold your pants up, it will at least hold your pistol. As times have changed, also the emphasis put on the belt has changed. Nowadays, depending on your role, you carry a small IFAK, your primary acess rifle mag, pistol mags, tools, GP pouches and sometimes even knives, frags and/or smokes on your belt.
With all those pouches and stuff on your belt people needed ways to attach PALS compatible pouches as well as added rigidity and some padding. While thick padded MOLLE belts were the rage five years ago, more and more people returned to slimmer belts for mobility reasons. But those lacked the padding that is necessary when you wear the belt all the time.
German manufacturer Terra-B produced a piece of kit that is not only modular, but also very comfortable. The Terra B Battle Belt somehow manages to combine all the pros of a slimline belt with those of a padded war belt.
The Systems consists of three pieces: The inner belt is a soft loop velcro belt that has a glide loop to tighten the belt properly. It primarily holds your pants up but it also interfaces with the belt pad.
The belt itself is a rigid belt made of thick 45mm webbing with a cobra buckle for closure. But the real interesting thing is the sewn on layer of laminate with laser cut PALS slots. You can attach belt loops but also add small and big molle pouches.
We tried MOLLE pouches with regular snap closure, pouches with tuck tabs and even blue force gears helium whisper. You can simply attach smaller pockets by attaching them regularly. If you want to attach mag or bigger GP pouches you have to skip the first slot on the pouch so the pouch will stay higher and more stable. The belt is designed to be worn standalone or with the belt pad.
The belt pad is really special, it is a little bigger than the belt itslef and has a thin and soft padding with spacer mesh. On the insert you will also find hook velcro which will allow you to mate it to the inner belt for added stability and to prevent shifting.
Speaking of shifting, Terra-B made the sleeve of laser cut laminate. The laminate has roughly 0,5cm slits all around the belt. This allows to stabilize belt attachment pouches and especially holsters and prevent them from moving away. Even a simple multitool pouch won’t shift in any direction.
The parts of the belt where you want to have PALS compatibility can be slided through the cutouts without even wasting a milimetre of belt attachment space.
Terra-B not only sent us two complete belt kits for testing, they also even did the long way from Berlin and visited us during our breaching class with ESA Austria.
This gave us the opportunity to really test the belt from the start. What we really liked is the absolutely flat profile. You get a padded belt that stays comfy all the time without restricting your movement. One focus of this system is that it really keeps everything in its place without building to much bulk.
I think that Terra-B is on something here. Considering they released the belt in May 2019 there is almost nothing to improve. What I would like to see is the addition velcro to the inner belt as well as adding a third velcro strip to the belt pad.
What this belt also needs is patience. You should really plan where you would exactly like to place each pouch. If you don’t do this you have to remove everything from the belt and start all over again. But I rather look at this as a pro, as a good belt setup needs to be well planned all the time.
Especially if you have small hips and you are in the market for a fitting padded belt the Terra B belt is a buy. You also need to consider that you get three excellent systems, namely a great loop belt, a „gunfighter“ style belt and a padded belt in one buy.
If you want to give this system a try, visit Terra B’s online store.
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