Condor 3-Day Assault Pack Review Combat Tested, Soldier Approved

TacticalGear4Life is supported by its wonderful audience. When you make a purchase through our links below, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The Condor 3-Day Assault pack is one of the most used, abused, and favoured tactical packs by Canadian soldiers. Sold at nearly every kit shop on every base, it is a tactical backpack that has been proven time and time again by soldiers who have taken it into combat with them, and best of all, it doesn’t break the bank

So, what makes Condor’s 3-Day assault pack a favoured backpack for Canadian warfighters?… Let’s get into it.

OVERALL

Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack has everything you want in a backpack. The entire pack was created using 1000D Cordura nylon, making it durable and strong. Because of that, it’ll give you years of hard use.

The combination of material, external carrying straps, and pouches lower down on the pack make it very sturdy and give the form of the pack great exterior strength.

The 50-litre total volume divided between the large main compartment and the five other well-placed compartments allows users to separate gear by need and necessity.

The straps are all quite comfortable, allowing the pack to be carried for hours and days on end without it becoming uncomfortable or painful.

At $115 it is one of the all-around best and most affordable tactical backpacks you can buy.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack immediately stands out as well-designed and good-looking.

Condor opted to put the admin compartment high on the back and add a separate lower compartment, which I really like and find very handy. This prevents my maps and notebooks from being crushed.

Right away, I gravitated to the side carry handles. These are super useful when you need to toss the pack onto the back of a tank or lav, up into the side bins, or just into the bed of your truck.

They’re also great for times when you need to grab the pack quickly and move. Condor has done a great job creating them, using thicker nylon and a ton of bar tacking to make them extra strong.

I like the MOLLE on the straps and each of the pouches; I don’t understand why and wasn’t a fan, however, of how Condor didn’t carry the PALS across the entire front of the pack, instead opting to do just a small section in the middle.

The ability to remove the wait strap was a very nice touch for day-to-day use, as most people won’t have the pack completely loaded. However, the wait strap could definitely be larger and have more padding.

The whole reason behind a waist strap is to take the load off your shoulders when the pack is extremely heavy, so it needs to be well-padded and large enough to handle the load.

FIELD FIRSTS

I had Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack out with me for a bit at work while I was in the field, and then I took it to some range days, and it didn’t disappoint.

The 50 litres is big enough to hold everything I needed. I stuffed it with ammo, ground sheets, earplugs, you name it. Although by the time I left for the range, I had it packed full, it held together well.

It also felt good the whole time, with only minor adjustments of the straps to get the pack situated to my body.

I am a big fan of the pack’s lower front compartment, which is a super functional quick-access pouch.

QUALITY AND DESIGN

CONDOR 3-DAY ASSAULT PACK EXTERIOR

MOLLE

The MOLLE on Condor’s 3-Day assault pack is standard-issued PALS webbing, which Condor placed in strategic areas around the pack.

MOLLE was placed on each of the smaller exterior compartments, and a strip down the center on the front of the pack. The shoulder and waist straps also have a PALS strip, allowing minimal attachments.

CARRY HANDLES

The carry handles on the Assault pack are all heavily reinforced nylon with bar tacking stitching attaching them to the pack itself.

Condor has placed a carry handle on the top and one on each side of the pack all equally thick and attached equally strong.

These carry handles are one of my favourite aspects of the Assault pack, as they offer great versatility in your ability to grab the pack and go.

COMPARTMENTS

The Condors 3-Day Assault pack has five compartments besides the main one. It has an admin compartment, a front easy stash compartment, plus two side and one front lower compartment.

This front lower compartment is an extremely well-placed easy stash pouch for the gear you want quick access to, such as headlamps, snacks, bullets, baby wipes, etc.

It also provides a wider base for the Assault pack, making it easy for it to sit upright and not spill what’s inside.

The side compartments are similar to the lower front indesign. They are sturdy, not saggy, but have a good firm frame to them, and they are just big enough to hold your standard Nalgene water bottle.

The shorter size of the side pockets allows for the carry handles on the side of the pack, but they definitely aren’t too short.

Condor has made them a great size for storage. They’re not so small that they’re unusable, and they’re not so big that you have to fish around in them to find stuff.

Condor has also added this front little easy stash pocket in the very front of the pack. Good for snacks or maps or both.

ZIPPERS AND BUCKLES

The buckles on Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack are your standard-issue Duraflex hard plastic buckles.

Thankfully, the buckle on the waist strap is much larger and sturdier than the rest of the pack. When you’re tightening a waist strap, you really yank on it hard to get it cinched up tight around your hips.

This extra-hard pulling on the waist strap buckle requires a bigger, stronger buckle. The larger buckle is common sense and highly functional, so I was glad to see it.

The zippers are standard issue, although I couldn’t say whether they were YKK as none of them were labelled.

However, they are a size 10 zipper which is larger than on many other tactical and mountaineering packs. This was another awesome little feature to see on the assault pack.

Condor also placed a nylon strip on the outside of each zipper to help with weatherproofing. and protection.

SHOULDER STRAPS

At about half an inch thick, the shoulder straps, although not great, are decently padded, and I have never had complaints or heard complaints about them from my fellow soldiers.

Whether you’re large or small, the should straps provide solid comfort for the wearer.

As you can see, they have a nylon band to hold your hydration hose in place, a strip of MOLLE to adjust your chest strap or add gear, and a metal D-ring for possible attachments.

The shoulder straps are attached to the Assault pack by this double-layer nylon strip on the top. Condor has done everything it can to make sure this nylon strip holds.

They used three sets of Bartack stitching and two sets of Box X stitching to hold the nylon to the pack and the shoulder straps.

WAIST STRAP

The waist strap on the Assault pack is fairly thin and flimsy, but it does get the job done. When you have a fully loaded pack, though, you want a nice cushioned waist strap that stays comfy for hours or days.

One awesome attribute of the waist strap on the Assault pack, though, is that it’s completely removable. Often, you won’t have a full load, and the pack’s waist strap can get in the way.

So, the ability to fully remove it is very handy.

The bottom center of the waist strap has reinforced polymer abrasion protection. This is a great little touch as it protects your pack when you set it on the ground.

BACK PADDING

The back padding of Condor’s 3-Day Assault is unique but quite comfortable. It’s meant to protect specifically where the muscles of your back rest against the hard polymer frame of the pack.

The padding isn’t super thick, but it is enough and it is comfortable.

BOTTOM

The bottom of the Assault pack has four individual pieces of PALS webbing, which allows you to attach a butt pouch. This is super handy as you can increase the 50-litre volume of the pack by another 2-5 litres.

Each compartment also has grommet holes, which allow any water that gets into your pack to drain out the bottom, helping to dry your gear quickly.

The 1000D fabric is great at keeping our water, but even the 1000D nylon can’t withstand a torrential downpour. in those cases, these grommets are great.

CONDOR 3-DAY ASSAULT PACK INTERIOR

MAIN COMPARTMENT

At 22″ H x 12″ W x 8″ D, the main compartment is the bread and butter of Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack. It is simple and well-designed, and it’s large without a ton of small extra pockets to muddy the inside.

I have another pack with so many inside compartments that sometimes I don’t know which one to use, and I lose stuff in it.

The back of the main compartment has four straps meant to hold gear securely to the back frame.

I wouldn’t normally use this unless I was carrying a radio on a patrol, and I honestly have never seen my buddies use these straps for anything other than radios either.

While doing some extra research on the pack, however, I saw some backpackers use it to hold other gear tight to the frame.

The Assault pack has two nice, simple mesh pockets on the inside of the main compartment, which allows you to compartmentalize your gear more effectively.

ADMIN COMPARTMENT

Condor has placed the admin compartment on the upper half of the pack, an aspect which I was absolutely thrilled with.

Whenever I’m in the field and we’re operating and training, I always have message pads for orders, maps of the area, and various writing utensils.

So it’s very frustrating when my pads and pens get crushed and bent.

Having the admin compartment on the top really helps prevent your administrative material from getting crushed and wrecked.

The admin compartment also has a fairly sturdy structure to it; this also helps keep your admin material in good health.

I would have liked to see the space utilized a little better, though. Condor put three large open pouches into the admin compartment. I’d say it’s unnecessary, as two could give me the separation I need between materials.

Two would also open a bit more space for smaller compartments. As you can see, my smaller ones are already full.

FRONT COMPARTMENT

This little compartment is a nice, simple shove-it compartment. A quick access pocket to throw your small gear or the small gear of a buddy into as your on the move.

BOTTOM COMPARTMENT

This front lower compartment is one of my favourites on the Condor 3-Day Assault pack. Its frame is solid, so the compartment holds its shape really well.

With dimensions of 6″ H x 9″ W x 2.5″ D, it is a super easy compartment to keep smaller items in that you could need at any time, and the zippered mesh pocket and three even smaller mesh pockets provide a detailed ability to sort your gear.

SIDE COMPARTMENTS

The Assault pack has two side compartments, one on each side. At 9″ H x 5″ W x 2.5″ D, the side pockets are just big enough to hold an average Nalgene water bottle or Yeti and Contigo travel mugs.

Like the front compartment, they’re sturdy and good for small gear.

HYDRATION COMPARTMENT

The hydration compartment can easily hold a single 3-litre water sack, but Condor actually created it to hold up to two 3-litre water sacks.

In the picture below, you can see a flap held down by velcro where my hand is. Inside this pouch is a hard polymer insert to support your back as you use the pack.

WHAT I LIKE BEST

COMPARTMENT LAYOUT

I am a huge fan of the overall layout of the compartments. The three smaller external compartments make great quick stash compartments and, being in line with the bottom of the Assault pack, give it a wide base.

The placement of the admin pouch on the top half of the pack instead of on the bottom half negates pack slouching and prevents your important admin material from getting squished and wrecked.

STITCHING

The quality of stitching in the 3-Day Assault pack is evident. Condor used special strength-focused stitching called bar tacking and box x stitching on vital points throughout the pack.

These points include carry handles, shoulder straps, MOLLE, reinforced abrasion locations, and more.

Condor put a lot of effort into ensuring the strength of their attachment points. The pack’s strength is one of the main reasons why the 3-Day Assault pack is so popular among combat arms soldiers in the Canadian military.

HOOK AND LOOP STRAP HOLDER

The hook and loop strap holders on the shoulder straps and all the compression straps are fantastic.

I have one pack that has no way to hold the excess strap material and another pack that has an elastic style of band to hold the excess strap material and I am not a fan of either of them.

Obviously, with the pack with no strap holders, the excess strap material hangs loose all over the place. This is extremely annoying as I like to keep my gear tight and together. I never use this pack anymore.

My other pack with the elastic strap holders isn’t much better, as you have to wind the excess strap up into the elastic holder. This is time-consuming to both do and undo them, and many times, I leave my straps loose because of it.

CONCERNS AND CRITICISMS

FRONT PANEL MOLLE

On the front of the Assault pack, Condor placed MOLLE only down the center of the front panel, which is only there to extend the front stash compartment.

This needlessly limited the amount of MOLLE that could be placed on the front. I don’t feel the expansion the front panel gives you is worth the extra one to two rows of PALS you could get on there.

SHOULDER STRAP ATTACHMENT POINT

The moment I received the Assault pack, these attachment points concerned me. They honestly look very weak, as there is very little material connecting the straps to the pack.

Now, although I canvassed guys at work who have used the Condor Assault pack for years and have told me they’ve never had an issue with this and after using the pack myself now for a bit and having no issues.

It still concerns me how little material is actually attaching the strap to the pack.

WAIST STRAP PADDING

On long marches, hikes, or walks, comfort is king, and padding is comfort. The waist strap on Condor’s 3-Day Assault pack is fairly thin and could for sure use an upgrade in padding.

That being said, it’s not the worst one I have seen, but it would definitely be an upgrade to throw another half an inch of padding into the waist strap.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Condor 3-Day Assault pack is absolutely awesome. It is one of the favourites in the Canadian armed forces, and I give it a 4 out of 5 rating.

The entire pack is made from 1000D Cordura nylon, which makes it extremely tough and durable. Condor also put extra effort into the stitching on the Assault pack to ensure strength in all potentially weaker locations.

It has a great compartment layout, and it’s not overly complicated, with too many little pockets here and there, leaving you wondering how to fill them all.

It’s comfortable whether you wear it for a day or a week in the field, and it’s AFFORDABLE. Costing $115 on Condor’s website or $100 on Amazon, it’s anywhere from $60 – $90 cheaper than its competitors.

In the end, the Condor 3-Day Assault pack is battle-tested, affordable, and worth is an all-around great pack

CHECK LATEST PRICE ON WEBSITE (DISCOUNT CODE: TG4L777 FOR 15% OFF)
CHECK LATEST PRICE ON AMAZON