[1][2] The IDF load-bearing system or Ephod ("apron" or "avantail" in Hebrew) is the direct result of the long experience acquired over the years with the "commando web gear" originally worn by Israeli recon paratroopers during the War of Attrition, who made crude but comfortable Khaki or Olive Green waistcoats and assault vests incorporating many small canvas or Nylon pouches.

[1][2][3] Known as the "New style" Load Bearing Equipment, the Ephod was designed by the Israeli private firm Rabintex Industries Ltd of Herzeliya near Tel Aviv in 1975–76, who allegedly developed it from an American prototype.

Many Israeli soldiers in the field had found the canvas material of the IDF standard issue "Old style" web gear and the load they carried to be very uncomfortable, and so wore padding underneath the pistol belt and waist pouches;[5] this aspect was taken into consideration by the designers of the Ephod, who devised a unique system in which the ammunition pouches, the grenade carriers and other equipment rest on three foam rubber pads tied together by parachute cord lacing at four points, allowing infinite adjustment to individual size.

[7] These characteristics made the Ephod an ingenious and versatile system, adaptable to the various needs of modern combat troops,[7] considered at the time by some specialists a revolutionary, imaginative design and the best in the world.

The Ephod-based SBO continued to be issued to SAF infantry battalions until 2006–2007, when it was replaced a new model of load-bearing vest (LBV) based on the MOLLE/Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS).

[31][citation needed] The Italian Army adopted the Ephod in the early 1990s and issued it as standard web gear for the paratroopers of the Folgore Airborne Brigade deployed at the Iraqi Kurdistan in the cadre of Operation Provide Comfort on April–July 1991.

[32] The pathfinder (Italian: Incursori) unit of the Folgore Brigade later employed the Ephod in combat when they participated in Operation Silver Back in April 1994, the joint multi-national effort to evacuate foreign nationals from Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, during the Rwandan Civil War.

The French Armed Forces elite units of the Special Operations Command deployed to Rwanda in the cadre of Opération Turquoise on June–August 1994 were photographed wearing a unique set of Load Bearing Equipment remarkably similar in design to the Israeli Ephod Combat Vest.

[34] The Estonian Land Forces adopted in the mid-1990s a locally designed set of Load Bearing Equipment inspired by the Ephod for its infantry units armed with the IMI Galil assault rifle.