British webbing: 58 Pattern, PLCE and MOLLE
British load carrying has been through three separate systems since the 1950s, and they do not interchange. If you have a belt from one and a pouch from another, the pouch will not go on - not because the kit is worn or wrong, but because each generation attaches in a completely different way.
The short answer
Three systems, three attachment methods, no interchange.
58 Pattern hangs pouches on wire C-hooks that drop over the top and bottom edges of a belt. PLCE threads belt loops and clips plastic T-bars. MOLLE weaves a strap through a ladder of 25 millimetre webbing loops and finishes with a press stud.
A MOLLE pouch has no C-hooks and no T-bars, so it has nothing to attach to a 58 Pattern or PLCE belt with. A 58 Pattern pouch has no woven strap, so it has nothing to weave through PALS. The rest of this page is what each system is, and how to tell them apart in a photograph.
58 Pattern, 1959 to the 1990s
1958 Pattern web equipment was issued from 1959 until the mid 1990s, and replaced the 1937 Pattern that had served through the Second World War. Cadet forces kept using it into the 2000s.
It is cotton canvas, dyed a flat olive green, with metal fittings. No camouflage print at all - if the webbing is plain green canvas rather than DPM or MTP, that alone almost settles it.
A standard set is the belt, a yoke, two ammunition pouches, a water bottle pouch and a pair of rear kidney pouches, with a poncho roll and large pack beyond that.
The attachment is the giveaway. Each belt-mounted pouch carries a pair of double wire hooks at the back. They go over the belt, one above and one below, and their ends sit in canvas pockets on the inside face of the belt. The belt has rows of small openings along its inner top and bottom edges to take them. Some pouches hang square to the belt and some are angled so the bottom sweeps rearward.
PLCE, 1989 onwards
Personal Load Carrying Equipment replaced 58 Pattern from 1989. It is the system most people picture when they think of British webbing: a belt, a six point yoke, and pouches that sit around the waist and at the back.
On naming, because it causes more confusion than anything else here. The official designation is 90 Pattern. There is no official 95 Pattern - that label came from people associating the webbing with the Combat Soldier 95 clothing system introduced in 1995, and it stuck. If a seller says 95 Pattern they usually mean a later production 90 Pattern item, and nothing is wrong.
It was issued in plain olive from 1989, in DPM from 1992, in desert DPM, and in MTP from 2015. So a PLCE pouch in MTP is late, and one in plain olive is early.
The attachment is belt loops together with plastic T-bar tabs rather than wire hooks. The yoke links to two D-rings on the belt and to A-rings on the front pouches. Early 90 Pattern production did use 58 Pattern C-hooks at the belt, which is the one place the two systems genuinely overlap - so an early PLCE pouch may go onto a 58 Pattern belt, while a later one will not.
MOLLE, and what this shop mostly sells
MOLLE is the American system and the one almost everything on these shelves uses. Instead of a belt with hooks, the platform carries a grid of horizontal webbing loops called PALS, and a pouch attaches by weaving its own strap down through the rows, alternating between platform and pouch, finished with a press stud.
Because the grid is standardised, a MOLLE pouch fits any PALS platform regardless of who made it - a plate carrier, a battle belt, a British Osprey vest or a commercial chest rig. That universality is exactly what 58 Pattern and PLCE do not have.
The spacing, how to count the loops and the three reasons a pouch still will not fit are covered properly in the MOLLE and PALS guide on this site, and are not repeated here.
Telling them apart from a photograph
Look at the back of the pouch, not the front. The front of all three can look similar; the back never does.
Wire hooks, two of them, shaped like a C: 58 Pattern. A moulded plastic T on a short strap, or plain fabric loops sized for a wide belt: PLCE. A long webbing strap with a ladder of stitched loops and a press stud at the end: MOLLE.
Then check the fabric. Plain olive cotton canvas points at 58 Pattern. DPM, desert DPM or MTP on a British item points at PLCE or at Osprey era MOLLE, and the back of the pouch separates those two.
Which one you actually want
For airsoft and for anything modern, MOLLE. It is what the carriers, belts and rigs sold now are built around, pouches are abundant and cheap second hand, and nothing you buy will be orphaned.
For a Falklands or Cold War impression, 58 Pattern, and you will be hunting complete sets rather than single pouches because the pouches are not much use without the belt they hook to.
For a 1990s or 2000s British impression, PLCE. Be careful about mixing: an early set and a late set attach differently even though both are called PLCE.
The honest position on stock: this shop is almost entirely MOLLE. British issue here mostly means Osprey era MOLLE kit in MTP rather than PLCE webbing, and 58 Pattern turns up rarely and as complete sets. If you want PLCE specifically, this is not the first place to look, and it is better to say so than to waste your time.
What this guide does not cover
Dating a specific item from its contract markings, and the finer collector distinctions within each pattern. The published material on PLCE in particular is thin and flags its own sourcing as weak, so where the evidence runs out this guide stops rather than guessing.
Questions
- Will MOLLE pouches fit PLCE webbing?
- No. MOLLE pouches attach by weaving a strap through a ladder of 25 millimetre PALS loops, and PLCE webbing has no such ladder - it uses belt loops and plastic T-bar tabs. There is nothing for the strap to weave through.
- Will a PLCE pouch fit a 58 Pattern belt?
- Sometimes, and only early ones. Early 90 Pattern production used 58 Pattern C-hooks at the belt, so those will hook on. Later PLCE uses loops and T-bars and will not.
- What is the difference between 90 Pattern and 95 Pattern PLCE?
- Officially there is no 95 Pattern. The designation stayed 90 Pattern throughout; the 95 label came from confusion with the Combat Soldier 95 clothing system and is generally used to mean later production.
- What does PLCE stand for?
- Personal Load Carrying Equipment. It replaced 58 Pattern webbing from 1989 and was issued in olive, DPM, desert DPM and from 2015 in MTP.
- Is 58 Pattern webbing still usable?
- Yes, and it is well made, but it is a closed system. Pouches only attach to a 58 Pattern belt, so a single pouch on its own is of limited use. Buy it as a set or not at all.
- Which webbing is best for airsoft?
- MOLLE, by a distance. It is what modern carriers, battle belts and rigs are built around, the pouches are standardised across manufacturers, and second-hand supply is plentiful.
Sources
- Personal Load Carrying Equipment
- 58 pattern webbing
- Imperial War Museum: Belt, Webbing, 1958 pattern
- Karkee Web: Infantry Equipment, Pattern 1958
In the shop
The load-carrying kit on the shelf now:
Written by the person who sorts the stock, not by a copywriter. Corrections are welcome at [email protected].