What Goes in an IFAK: A Practical Fitout Guide

This is an equipment guide, not medical training. The contents of a first aid kit only matter if you know how to use them — seek nationally accredited first aid or tactical casualty care training before you rely on any of it.

The job of an IFAK

An individual first aid kit has one job: keep the essentials for treating life-threatening bleeding and breathing problems on your person, where you or a mate can reach them in seconds. It is not a station kit, not a vehicle kit, and not a comprehensive medical bag. Everything about a good IFAK — the pouch, the contents, the mounting position — follows from that one job.

We build the Micro IFAK 2.0 around this principle: low profile enough to live on a belt or plate carrier permanently, fast to open with one hand, and sized so you carry it every time rather than leaving it in the car.

The core contents

Most professional fitouts cover the major preventable causes of death from trauma. A typical layout:

• Tourniquet. The single most important item for severe limb bleeding. Many users carry the tourniquet in a dedicated tourniquet pouch mounted separately from the IFAK, so it can be reached with either hand without opening anything.
• Haemostatic or pressure dressing. An emergency bandage (often called an Israeli bandage) or trauma dressing for wound packing and direct pressure.
• Chest seals. Twin packs are common, for penetrating chest injuries — entry and exit.
• Compressed gauze. For wound packing alongside the dressing.
• Gloves and trauma shears. Cheap, light, and the first things you actually reach for.
• Marker and casualty card. For recording times — especially tourniquet time.

Quantity discipline matters more than variety. An IFAK stuffed until the zip strains is slower to work from than one packed deliberately with less.

Empty pouch or complete fitout?

We sell the Micro IFAK 2.0 as an empty pouch and as fitted-out versions — the General Operational Fitout and the Operator Fitout. The empty pouch suits people who already hold stock, have unit-specified contents, or want to build to their own training. The fitouts suit people who want a coherent, working kit from day one. Either way, know every item in your kit and check expiry dates on consumables twice a year.

Where to mount it

• Belt: the most common civilian and law enforcement position — support side, where either hand can reach it.
• Plate carrier: typically low on the front or on the cummerbund. Avoid positions you cannot reach with both arms — you may be working one-handed.
• Danglers and placards: a dangler pouch under the front plate bag keeps medical off your MOLLE real estate entirely.

Wherever it goes, it goes in the same place every time, on every set of kit. Under stress you will reach where you trained to reach.

The pouch itself

What we've learned building these in Australia for years: laser-cut MOLLE keeps the profile slim and sheds less water than woven webbing. Elastic retention beats velcro dividers for speed. And the pouch must open flat or tear away cleanly — digging through a top-loading pocket with two fingers while wearing gloves is where cheap IFAKs fail.

The Micro IFAK 2.0 is designed and manufactured in Australia, in Black and in AMP (AMCU-compatible) for serving members — see the full medical range or the AMCU-compatible collection.

Maintain it like it matters

Check the kit after every use and every water crossing. Replace anything with broken packaging. Log tourniquet age — training tourniquets and carry tourniquets are separate items, never swapped. And again: get trained. The pouch is our job; what happens when it opens is yours.