God I love obscure kit reviews another great vid! Val gear talks about French grenades you should check him out you might find an answer for what they used with that vest!
Yes, I would have preferred to have fixed pouches on the front. Leave the belt and the rear as issued. It might have worked better that way. Like I said I'm glad I never had to use it ;)
Treillis toutes armes (TTA) or "All Arms Uniform". I own one myself and although it isn't the most comfortable vest I own, it is practical. Heavily used in The Congo and Ivory Coast Ops in 2003 and Early on in Afghanistan. You tend to see a lot of user preference on those OPs with French troops adding private purchase pouches, also you tend to see the French Med pouch and FAMAS cleaning kit pouch added, usually attached to those small straps at the top. You tend to see guys using one of the back pouches only for some reason. As to the Arktis battle vests, yes but it would be more correct to say Arktis "style" battle vests as they bought in from several different companies, Mil Tec, OPEX and Sans Marque as well as Arktis, all of which are similar but have subtle differences. The French army are not adverse to buying off the shelf when they need too and of course some are private purchase.
Thanks for posting, that's great info. The fact is these vests were used for a long time, even if the design is a bit "unique", so they must have worked at some level. Thats interesting about Arktis. I know they supply a lot of kit to the French military, but I didn't realise some units were using knock offs, lol.