Black Hawk Down Delta Force Loadout Guide

My previous post showing some of the production stills from the filming of Blackhawk Down has proved incredibly popular. The vast majority of traffic that I get through this website from google are people searching for delta force pictures,  so it’s probably not much of a surprise that the behind the scenes pics of the SFOD-D guys from Blackhawk down have been received with interest. 

With this in mind I’ve put together the following guide for those that are interested in the kit worn by the actors portraying various Delta Force operators in the movie Blackhawk Down from an airsoft perspective.

Generic Delta Operator:

To start with I'll give a guide for a generic Delta Force look, I'll go into the popular named charachters later.

• Raid Modified 3 colour "coffee stain" desert BDUs
• Blackhawk Hellstorm Knee Pads*
• PT Armour**
• Blackhawk Urban Assault Vest***
• Alice LC1/2 Belt, 2x 5.56 pouches, compass pouch, 2x canteens & buttpack
• Blackhawk drop-leg Omega holster
• Protec half shell helmet****
• SWD Goggles / Bolle X500*****
• Colt commando (M733, M727)

* The hellstorm knee pads are out of production now, but various chinese copies can be picked up from ebay or HK based retailers.
** Chinese copies of the PT armour are available but are pretty small and very much suit a runners physique.  Guarder used to make a bigger one that can be picked up second hand.  Getting the real item is pretty tought these days.
*** Blackhawk have altered their products over the years and this vest is the closest (the new stlye D.O.A.V is pretty close too.  I wouldn't worry about getting this part perect as they were all tailored in the movie, any pre-molle, black, US style vest would look the part imho.
**** Get the real item, they don't cost much.  Sand down the shiny finish like the real guys did.
***** Personal preference here, in the movie they have a mix of X500s and Oakley goggles, but issue SWD goggles would be apropriate.  Pick what you are comfortable wearing, it's only a game afterall!

See my article HERE for an overview on airsoft Colt Commando's.

Hoot (Eric Bana):

 

Eric Bana's character ‘Hoot’ is one of the most popular loadouts you see copied from the movie.  His loadout differs from the generic guide above in a couple of ways.  His assault vest has had all of the pouches removed, using it as an expensive set of suspenders for his belt load.  Over the top of this he wears a 6 pouch chest rig (4x 5.56, 2x .45) made by Blackhawk, though similar chest rigs were produced by Eagle at the time and are cloned by King Arms and a Chinese Firm.  Rather than using the DOAV style vest as a set of suspenders, it makes more sense to use an LC1/2 set of suspenders as 90% of it is concealed below the chest rig. 'Hoot' wears a pair of Blackhawk .45 pouches on his belt rig.

Gary Gordon & Randy Shughart:

By far the most popular Black Hawk Down Delta loadouts are those of Shughart and Gordon, the two Delta snipers that heroically chose to face certain death defending the second crash site.

As far as loadouts go they follow the general outline of the other kits with a couple of exceptions.  The actor portraying Gordon wears an Alice Y harness combined with the 5.56 chest rig (as suggested in the Hoot loadout above).  The actor portraying Shughart has a modified LBV88 instead of an LC1 Y Harness.  This seems to have been tailored to remove the back mesh panel and the front pouches.  This is a bit odd, as the LC1 ammo pouches will only hold 2x M14 mags each, meaning that he can in theory only carry 5 mags total.  For skirmishing purposes you could sneak a couple more LC1 ammo pouches onto the belt rig and it would still look pretty authentic. 

A note on Gary’s CAR15.  This is often incorrectly identified as an M733, however it is actually an M727 with a slip over suppressor.  These were very common in the early 90’s with delta, Rangers and Airforce Special Operations (there are images of them in use during Desert Storm and Somalia).  The company that manufactured them is called Ops Incorporated, king arms make an airsoft clone of this suppressor.

Boots:

The boots worn in the film by the SFOD-D operators are Adidas GSG9 boots, which are as rare as hens teeth these days.  I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over this part of the impression as boots would have varied from operator to operator depending on personal preference.  Many of the images from the real conflict show the use of the standard issue Jungle Boots or desert boots, which can be picked up brand-new, unissued for a very small outlay.

Movie accuracy:

The kit used by the delta operatives in the movie is a pretty decent homage to what was used in Somalia.  The general look and feel of the loadouts is very close, particularly with all of the tailored kit.  However one has to remember that the movie was made nearly 10 years later, with kit provided by Blackhawk Industries, often using more modern equipment modified to look like that of the period.  As the movie is only a rough impression I think it is fair that an airsofter attempting this type of loadout use the same approach.  The pics below are a couple of the real operators from the conflict to give you some idea of how close the film got.