Ops Core SOTR - Civilian Preparedness Respirator

Taking a look at the Special Operations Tactical Respirator (SOTR) there are a lot of great features that are extremely useful from both a civilian and duty use perspective. The SOTR sits in a very comfortable middle ground of offering you more protection than a simple bandana while also giving you far more mobility and visibility than a full-on m50 gas mask.

The SOTR uses a half mask design with the P100 filter located in the center of the mask. This is to give the wearer a proper cheek weld, regardless of which side of their face they are shouldering a weapon system.

Also included are two outlet valves. These are used to move air out of the mask when you’re operating at high intensity and need to move large volumes of air.

The SOTR also comes in two versions, the SOTR and SOTR Lite. The lite gives you only the head hardness and one filter whereas the full-size SOTR comes with two filters, the head harness, and the helmet harness. Additionally, the SOTR lite only comes in the non-mic enabled configuration.

At the bottom of the mic, you can see where to attach the two prong comm connector. This allows you to connect the other end into peltors or the Ops Core AMPs. Comm gear supply also sells a nexus comm cord that accepts the SOTR mic connector and allows you to connect in a standard 3.5mm jack. This opens up some great opportunities to use the SOTR head harness and basic range headsets for a full comms capable civilian setups with respiratory and hearing protection.

Included with the SOTR are also the two helmet harnesses, the head harness and the helmet harness. The head harness is amazing in that the hardness can be connected in and then tucked into the nose cup of the SOTR itself. The ability hide the entire system in a bag or cargo pocket makes the SOTR extremely versatile.

The helmet harness has a few more challenges but would certainly be usable in an emergency. I found that I had some issues finding areas to be able to connect the SOTR in. The whole setup just didn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

You can also purchase the O2 helmet harness separately and this is an absolutely amazing helmet connection system. The O2 harness integrates into both ARC rail and Exfil systems to give you a much much better connection over the included helmet harness.

Within the SOTR you’ll also find the P100 filter. This product can filter out 99.97% of all particles down to 0.3 microns. As it is an oil proof filter also (p) there is no time use or aerosol limitations with this product.

The filter itself works in that magic space of working with that most penetrating particle size to only allow particles that are so small that they cannot attach to your lungs and would simply be exhaled by the combatant.

Overall, the SOTR is on my top tier for respiratory protection. From civil unrest to basic home improvement all the way to full-on battlefield use, the SOTR just absolutely performs.

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