That’s the official name of this thing. I know, it’s excessive.
As with all well-designed, flapped double mag pouches, this pouch is extremely versatile and is definitely the sort of style that should be strongly considered for the vast majority of end users; regardless of their of their exact job role. While it isn’t cheap, it is made in the US from quality materials and has a myriad of applications.
https://www.cryeprecision.com/5-56-7-62-MBITR-Pouch
As you can see from the manufacturer’s own product page, this pouch can comfortably accommodate and retain 1-2 5.56 mags, a 7.62 NATO mag, various radios, smoke/stun/thermite grenades or a pistol up to the size of a G17. Plus, of course, various other common items of similar size, of which a great many exist within the arena of personal equipment. Access to said items is quick and expedient, via either the velcro flap, vertical shingle style bungee or external bungee-tension retention.
While the design is (mostly) very good, the materials are a slight drawback when viewed in the present day. They were great when this pouch was first released, but at a guess that was at least a decade ago at this point. They remain quite adequate overall, it’s just that better alternatives do exist now.
Most of the construction is a single layer of 500D, which again is fine and keeps it very light, but a laminate would be a lot more durable and tends to keep it’s shape which makes stowing items quicker and more intuitive.
I think the PALS attachment is a particularly weak point, especially when assessed in 2026. It uses only a single layer of a Hypalon style fabric, which is a synthetic rubber type material that was seen as the holy grail of new fabrics for usage in the tactical gear industry around 15 years ago – but it only enjoyed a comparatively brief period in the spotlight. I haven’t seen this fabric implemented in to any new design that I would consider to be top tier from any suitably high end manufacturer in an extremely long time. The companies that use such fabrics will sing it’s praises in terms of tear and abrasion resistance, but personally I haven’t seen such claims hold up in the real world. Indeed, quite the opposite.
One nice feature is the integrated channel for direct belt mounting, visible here in the centre of the image. Being able to slide right on to a modern 2″ belt makes for a far more stable mounting setup when compared to using the PALS.
A feature that I would call extraneous is this additional large pass-through. It is specifically added to the back of the pouch under the PALS mounting, in order to direct mount on to the cummerbund of a Crye AVS, so users of that armour system will enjoy it. But almost everyone else is just carrying around an extra couple of layers of fabric for no reason. By lucky happenstance, this will also be advantageous for users of other modern 3″ tall cummerbunds that are fully lined with loop internally, of which a few exist such as the Shaw S-LOK and AXL Equinox. But even when all of the above are combined, they represents a very small minority of equipment users worldwide.
In practice, overall security of mounting with normal PALS is not necessarily worsened in a major way by adding this channel, but it certainly isn’t aided by the extra stand off distance either.
With that said, I do appreciate the general shape of the velcro flap and the stiffening right at the end of it, along with the webbing reinforcement at the crucial lower front edge and the easily replaceable bungee cord that is adjustable with a Toaster cord lock.
To address the elephant in the room, MC Tropic is not a standard offering for SPS from Crye, but a few small batches of pouches have been made in MCT, MCA and MCB. I was fortunate enough to acquire this one from the custom order that was made by OpTactical back around 2021.
I probably wouldn’t buy more of these today if I wanted the best possible double 556 pouch. I would go for the Spiritus SPUD if I wanted a lot of modularity and had money to spend, or perhaps a Carcajou or Tac Tailor double 556 for a bit less cash.
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