REVIEW: UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts

This is the latest Tactical Shorts from UF PRO. The whole pants? No, not at all, but the central part. If you lose it, it's like the pants losing its heart. It is significant and exciting. And the latter quite literally.

Search game: Where is it? Exactly, just below the navel, well above the step of the UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts is where the bar is located. And, oh wonder, it holds by itself, because the hands are on the straps on the right and left.

UF PRO has really come up with something there. But you have to embrace the functionality to find it great. The "heart of the pants" is attached to the button above the zipper and sits centered on your front. Hands up! After buttoning, the belt buckle stays there. If not buttoned, it falls down. We hate to tell you: there are no miracles.

The rest is tactical planning. The belt buckle as a centerpiece with its two eyelets takes the side straps, which are looped through and secured with Velcro on the right and left. A centered love strap as it were. Can be useful, especially when there is a lot of belly, we would say.

No, that was a joke. Because the belly is not the target: UF PRO integrates the underbelt from a War Belt into the pants. Into the whole pants? No, it stops as a strap where our thumb is. But it is pulled through as Velcro at the back. If you don't want the belt, you would have to cut it off here. But that's not the inventor's intention... Behind the "belt," you can also see the stretch at the hip, which makes the pants particularly flexible here and on the buttocks. The Waist/Flex system is what the manufacturer calls it, it should sit and not slip.

The magic of the UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts is that they are basically combat pants with an integrated underbelt. Here we have a Range Belt placed over it. With Velcro, it stays in place, without the need for an extra underbelt. The same function can also be found in the fantastic new Striker ULT Combat Pants from UF-PRO.

The remaining details: The fly is buttoned, below that a two-way zipper that can be opened from top to bottom or bottom to top.

The front and side panels look different than in the previous model, the P-40 Tactical Shorts - HERE in the SPARTANAT Review. Everything looks more integrated, the zipper on the front thigh pocket now has a cover flap.

The pockets are big as Russia once again and those who like to reach deep will be happy here.

Above the right pocket is the zipped "secret compartment". It is really hard to notice if you don't know it's there. We appreciate it a lot because we can take important things with us that we definitely don't want to lose because we always need them - car keys or condoms. Always ready!

The P-40 thigh pockets are completely redesigned. Slightly larger, more bellows, top edge slanted. They fit very nicely on the thigh.

This is the vertical zipper on the thigh pocket. But wait: this is not the sitting access, but a ventilation opening to a mesh area in the pants. But wait, the sitting access is also there, as a zipper under the zipper.

This is the part of the pants where we UF PRO cannot quite follow and simply say, "overengineered". Mesh ventilation in a pair of shorts? Does it need to have that? A zipper behind a zipper? A double zipper? The sitting access would have been enough, even if it should be the design for the long P-40 Gen. 2 pants. First, shorts really don't need ventilation, second, the Multicam UF PRO P40 Gen., 2 Tactical Shorts uses the new ultra-light NyCo fabric, which is supposed to help avoid overheating. All information about NyCo Extreme can be found HERE .

This is the classic UF PRO P-40 access. You can access the stuff in the thigh pocket from the top or from the front with open zippers, so standing or sitting. Very practical. Because of the slightly larger pocket, it is much easier to reach from the top. The driver's-side zipper is quite tight though.

When we want to load up, there's a lot going on on the side: we have pocket knives, water, and a saw with us. Don't forget the Snickers!

In the thigh pocket are two flexible loops that can ideally hold water bottles so they don't fly around. This is very practical and corresponds to the trend of tactical hydration from the commercial plastic bottle.

Also proven is the phone pocket on the thigh pocket, which is secured with a bar. The smartphone is always with you, the location is ideal because it is easily accessible on one hand, but on the other hand, it doesn't have to shine directly in your pants pocket near your crown jewels. We honestly have real prejudices about whether this is really good in the long run...

The smartphone security is clever and practical. The turned-over bar has really proven its worth.

Behind that, there is something like a pocket knife pocket, although we would never carry our pocket knife there because it's too far back and down for us. But the small saw is at home here and easily accessible. The size fits perfectly, a folding ruler is also certainly fine.

We prefer to have the pocket knife in the pants pocket. There's no special reinforcement there for that reason.

The length is solidly knee-length. So when standing, it's just below the kneecap.

That's the fabric strip between the knee and thigh pocket. We know we're barbarians, but we clearly see the potential to shorten the shorts, which would be absolutely sufficient for EDC. Everyone can see our knee.

We even have the vision that there could be a zipper there and additional tubes so that you can turn the shorts into light tactical pants. It works with trekking pants too.

You can see the whole shorts at a glance. Difference: left thigh loaded, right thigh empty.

Let's look at them from "behind": The Velcro strips are supposed to serve as the belt. While the loops at the front are doubled, they are only single at the back. You can see the thick, padded middle area that sits exactly at the coccyx. Ideal for use, probably pleasantly warm for EDC in the summer.

More towards the lower buttocks area, there are two zippered back pockets. There is also a lot of stretch there if you want to carry a lot of bills.

No, not really, but the pants are very flexible around the buttocks and the side areas.

Overall view from the back, left empty, right filled. Very filled pockets are a bit of a "pain in the ass" because they narrow down. Since it's a short, there are no bars in the knee area that make everything tighter and firmer. The shorts limit themselves a bit here...

We're now putting on a equipment belt over the velcro and fastening it. You could go through the loop, but it's tedious to velcro. So over it: quite difficult to hit the center point so that the closure sits properly in the front. We need three to four attempts until we are satisfied with the fit.

Here you can see the side stretch on the pants, the War Belt sits heavily on the hips.

In the front, we secure it with the double loop. By the way, the belt here is from BLACK TRIDENT - we introduced the Range Belt here on SPARTANAT.

Everything fits; now the whole First Line equipment could be on.

However, what also works is mounting the holster directly on the integrated belt.

The front loop is, however, annoying when velcroing. If we're not carrying a holster, we lazily velcro over one loop and close the second. Now we have to fiddle the two below, because otherwise the velcro with the holster won't work. The positioning of the loops is the issue...even without any load.

Otherwise, it's a compelling idea to use the integrated belt on the pants and go to the range. This sits ideally and extremely stable with the centered centerpiece. It really saves the shooter a belt.

Normally we use the shorts as everyday pants. For this purpose, they are relatively heavy: almost 800 grams for our size with the complex belt system. Our normal "tactical" summer pants from TAD Gear weigh 200 grams.

CONCLUSION: The UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts is very "tactical". What stands out here is the construction in the pelvic area. Special construction with a buttoned belt buckle as the "heart", integrated belt and padding are tactically great, but for just shorts they would be too much. UF PRO thinks a lot and delivers great results, but especially with this construction, it is also a limitation because you can only take the whole package: there is no way to remove the "belt". For a tactical-free summer, this is not always ideal. On the other hand, if you think with UF PRO, you get a well-thought-out tactical shorts that greatly benefits the shooter.

Beyond the excellent UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts: We would like UF PRO to create some really nice ultralight shorts in the spirit of climate change, which just want to be with us every day of summer.

This is the manufacturer's product video. UF PRO Chief Designer Armin Wagner presents the pants himself.

The UF PRO P40 Gen. 2 Tactical Shorts is available for 145 euros directly from the manufacturer or from all resellers carrying UF PRO products.

UF PRO on the Web

More tactical shorts in the test: HERE is the GEAR GUIDE TACTICAL SHORTS