BORELLI CONSULTING: Tactical Equipment Reviews

BlackHawk HellStorm Gloves On Duty After Katrina
Courtesy of Steve Forgues
16 January 2006

HellStorm® S.O.L.A.G.™ (Special Operations Light Assault Glove)

In the twelve years that I have been in law enforcement, I have seen a considerable improvement in equipment used by law enforcement and the military, including gloves. There are many varieties on the market, from lightweight and thin gloves that are great for searches to gloves that include slash or blood borne pathogen protection. I have used gloves in the past from the BlackHawk® Products Group HellStorm® line. I found them to be well made and suited my needs well, so when I was getting equipment ready for a return assignment in Louisiana, I went looking for a pair of gloves that would provide me with a lightweight glove that would provide more protection for my hands than the normal duty glove. After perusing through the BlackHawk® catalog, I selected the HellStorm® S.O.L.A.G.™ (Special Operations Light Assault Glove).

The S.O.L.A.G.™ is available in full and half-finger in black, also available with Kevlar® (black) and with Nomex® (coyote tan). All forms of the S.O.L.A.G.™ have two adjustment straps to make it fit your hands just right. The first strap is on the back-of-hand, the second is a wrist strap that provides good wrist support. With these adjustment systems, besides being very form fitting, I found them to be very secure on my hand once adjusted. Once these gloves are on and adjusted, they are not going to come off unless you loosen the straps. The S.O.L.A.G.'s™ are made from advanced synthetic composite materials; what the materials are exactly, I don't know, but I found these gloves to be very durable and provided good dexterity and tactility. They also incorporate what BlackHawk® calls a multiple stitch layer design for enhanced gripping power. I have always preferred gloves that provided good hand protection but were thin to allow me the greatest dexterity to find the smallest thing during a search. With the multiple stitch layer design it is from what I could tell only two layers in most areas, but isn't so thick that it diminish your search capabilities. The S.O.L.A.G.™ is like most of the HellStorm® line, it utilizes their patented Quad Stitch Rings on the index finger. Here is what BlackHawk® says about it:

The Quad Stitch Rings on the index finger increase grip and allow the user to custom fit, cut, and modify the index finger portion of the glove. Cutting in between any one of the four stitch lines allows the user to remove a portion of the glove to expose the trigger or index finger for more dexterity, better trigger control, better use of the finger for buttons on radios, or keypads on GPS units.

The significance of the HellStorm® Glove patented stitch rings is enhanced glove performance and prevention from unraveling after custom modifications. HellStorm® Gloves are designed for Military, Law Enforcement, Corrections, and S.A.R. Personally I have no need at least at this time to be cutting off part of the index finger, but I see how this would be beneficial for some operators.

I have been wearing these gloves for awhile now, and overall I feel that they are an excellent pair of gloves. They are very well made, very durable, very comfortable, and provide you with good hand protection in not only the palm, but also across your knuckles. One problem that I found was when handling a handgun. The material is soft and smooth allowing the handgun to slide in the palm of your hand, even when handling the handgun with both hands. Handling a long gun such as an M4, like I did, I had a positive grip on the weapon. BlackHawk® uses a non-slip HawkTex™ in some of the other HellStorm® gloves, I would suggest the addition of HawkTex™ to key grip areas in the palm of the S.O.L.A.G.™

NOMEX® AVIATOR™ FLIGHT OPS GLOVE

About three years ago when I joined the tactical team at the agency I was with, I was in need of a good pair of gloves that would provide some heat and flash protection due to handling distraction devices and other similar devices. Because of past positive experiences with BlackHawk products I went looking to them for my gloves. And as I expected, I found just what I needed, the NOMEX® Aviator Flight Ops Glove, which are design off the classic flight glove design.

These gloves as the name states contains NOMEX®, which is an antistatic material and will provide heat/flash protection up to 800°F (427°C) according to specifications from BlackHawk®. The back of the gloves are made up of the NOMEX®, whereas the palm side is made of cowhide leather which is soft but durable. With the backs being NOMEX®, it stretches to some extent allowing the gloves to conform to the shape of your hand. They also incorporate an extended gauntlet, extending the glove up your arm a couple of inches, which covers the gap between your sleeve, and glove that you would typically have, giving added protection. At critical stress points the material is double-stitched. Like the S.O.L.A.G.™ above, the Aviator also has the patented Quad Stitch™ design.

The Aviator gloves are available in three colors, Black, Olive Drab and Desert Tan, with sizes ranging from medium to XX-Large. So whether you are a tactical operator or military personnel, there is a color to meet your needs and sizes to meet pretty much all hand sizes.

Over the last three years, I have gone through about three pair of these gloves. I am very hard on my equipment and expect my equipment to do as they are designed. These gloves have definitely done what they were designed for. They are lightweight, thin and allow you good dexterity. Since leaving that agency and tactical team, I have worked the streets as a police officer and used these gloves while working those streets. I didn't necessarily need NOMEX® gloves while working the streets, but I had worn them for so long and so use to wearing them, I didn't want to stop. I have been told that emergency traffic flares burn at over 2000°F, don't know if that is accurate, but I'm sure most of you are use to flares sparking and popping and burning holes in your uniform, as I have. I recently had a flare spark and pop and burn a couple small holes through these NOMEX® Aviator gloves. The Aviators as the specifications above show, are not designed to protect against 2000°F. Although the gloves received burn holes, they provided me enough protection to the extent that I didn't get burned.

As you can see these gloves were not designed just for aviators, but also for the law enforcement or military operator. If you need a lightweight glove with heat/flash protection, I would recommend these gloves.

For further information visit BlackHawk® Products Group at www.BlackHawk.com.

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For a listing of reviews in chronological order, GO HERE.

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