Ratnik Archives

Russia began evolving the weapons and gear their infantry were using in 2013 as part of an ongoing program known as “Ratnik” that translates as “warrior”. Gone are the days of throwing poorly trained and equipped soldiers into battle. What they are developing rivals any modern first world military force.

6sh117 All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment

In researching about Ratnik for a blog post I just did, I was surprised at how much gear has already found its way onto eBay. It goes to show how efficient the surplus market is I suppose plus that the program has been in effect for nearly six years at this point.

What can you find on eBay? In digging, I have found:

6B38 MPL-50 Shovel
6B38 60L RAID Backpack
6B50 Ballistic Goggles
6B51 Knee and Elbow Pads
6E1 Water Filter and Pouch
6E4-1 Watches
6E4-2 Watches
6E6 Multi tool
6SH117 Tactical Vest
6M2 Active Hearing Headphones
FSS-014 Flashlight
GSSH-01 Active Headphones

There are also a lot of hats, coats, uniforms, gloves and more. So, if you are wondering where you can find the modern Russian Ratnik gear, you definitely need to check out eBay and I created a live link to eBay where you can see posts that you can order:

Live eBay Feed You Can Order From

You can click here to open a new tab with eBay search results. The following examples are live posts on eBay. If you click on a listing, it will appear with more details and there will be links to others as well:

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com . Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Photo source: By Vitaly V. Kuzmin – http://vitalykuzmin.net/?q=node/524, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29469738

In past blog posts, I have featured the modernization efforts of the base Kalashnikov rifle that resulted in the 5.45×39 AK-12. What many people do not know is that this was just part of a much broader Russian program to create a future infantry combat system. The name of this program is “Ratnik” (Ратник) that translates as warrior.

While R&D started ear;lier, prototype Ratnik kits for the first generation components were delivered in 2013. Firearms, optics, communication, navigation, uniform, load bearing and body armor elements were accepted into service on October 23, 2014. Approximate 200,000 sets were delivered by September 2017, and 100% adoption is estimated in 2020 of the Ratnik-2 system. Ratnik-3 hasn’t been released yet but the suit will include a powered exoskeleton to improve strength, speed and stamina.

Overall, what you are seeing is a concerted move away from the Soviet doctrine of volumes of relative untrained and marginally equipped armed forces personnel (all branches exclude Spetsnaz) to that of a professional modern force of trained and well equipped soldiers.