Quick Look: Agilite Mitznefet (Helmet Shape-Breaker) - Multicam

VIDEO: "REVEALED! Why Israeli Soldiers wear 'Chef Hats'"--Agilite (2 min.)

Earlier this year, in March, I came across the video, above, discussing the Mitznefet. What is an Mitznefet? Wikipedia has as good an explanation of it as any:

The Mitznefet (Hebrew: מִצְנֶפֶת‎) is a helmet covering used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on combat helmets for infantry soldiers since 1994. It is considerably larger than the helmet, with a similar appearance to a chef's hat. The main purpose of the Mitznefet is to break up the distinctive outline of a helmeted human head via its floppiness and also prevent light from reflecting off of the wearer's helmet, providing a tactical advantage and making it easier to camouflage when necessary. Additionally, the bulk of the covering can be pulled down to shade and protect any side of the wearer's head from direct sunlight exposure.

The name comes from the priestly mitre or turban worn by the Jewish High Priest during the temple periods. A good video on the history of its unofficial development and eventual widespread adoption in the IDF is below:

VIDEO: "The Mitznefet: Israel's Unique Take on Camouflaged Helmet Covers"--Uniform History (11 min.)

    I was intrigued by the idea because the shape of the human head is very distinctive and we are essentially hard-wired to spot human heads and faces. The traditional way of breaking up the silhouette is to use head gear (which can have the problem of also being distinctive), use a camouflage pattern as part of the head gear (hopefully breaking up the pattern), or to attach shrubbery or grass, strips of cloth or netting, etc., to one's head gear to break up the outline and camouflage the head. An example is shown below:

"Personal Camouflage & Face Paint"--
Olive Drab

    But using shrubbery presents its own problems, including the time and effort to correctly arrange it, and, although I don't have experience as such, seems that it would be impractical when traveling by vehicle or in urban combat. And what if there is no vegetation common to your area, e.g., some desert areas.

    The Mitznefet seems to be a useful solution for urban, desert or shrub land. (I doubt it would work well in a forested environment if for no other reason that it would snag on tree branches or larger shrubbery). It definitely breaks up the shape of the head.

    Agilite, which produced the first video above, happens to make and sell a Mitznefet made of a mesh sporting a Multi-cam pattern. When I ordered mine in March, the price was $49.00 and they offered free shipping. It also shipped with some swag: a couple stickers of the Agilite logo (a scorpion), one of someone rappelling from a Blackhawk helicopter, and the Israeli flag.

    The Agilite Mitznefet is large--more than ample for any helmet or hat I can think of. It is drawn close by an adjustable shock cord that holds it tight to the head, although it can be pulled off a helmet without any problem. You could wear it as a hat, but with the fabric bunched together, it is not very comfortable. Besides, the mesh fabric, by itself, would not protect you very well from the sun; that is, it provides some shade, but as a mesh it lets enough sunlight through that you could still suffer from a sunburn if you were sitting still for a long period. But it works great on a helmet and even better, in my opinion, around a soft hat or cap.

    Currently Agilite is out of stock. However, there are other manufacturers. For instance, in writing this, I found another company called Zahal that makes a double-sided Mitznefet with woodland camo on one side, and desert on the other. It is being sold for $45.

    I have some photographs of the Agilite product below:

View looking straight on.

View looking down from the top.

I recently took it with me out to the desert just to compare a helmet with and without the Mitznefet:

Not the greatest shot, but it shows a helmet with multicam helmet cover atop a steel silhouette target at approximately the height of a person (note: the junk is not from me--this is a reasonably well known shooting area and, as we know, not all shooters are very good at packing out the garbage they decide to shoot up, even though it is this behavior that gets areas shut down to shooting. Sigh).

Same view but with the Mitznefet on the helmet. 

But we should not be standing up if we are under fire from an enemy force, so here are some shots where I put the helmet on the stump of a dead sagebrush so it would be about the height of someone on their belly but with their head up:

A view of just the helmet.

And with the Mitznefet on the helmet.

As you can see, at least when the helmet is close to the ground, the Mitznefet does make it more difficult to spot the helmet, giving it the look of something more natural. Just quickly scanning the area, you might think it was one of the numerous pieces of volcanic rock found in the area.