S6 NBC Respirator

Norwegian soldiers in 1983, wearing S6 NBC masks and armed with AG-3s

The S6 NBC Respirator was the protective gas mask issued to the British armed forces from the 1960s up until the introduction of the current-issue S10 in 1986.

The S6 was developed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down and manufactured by the Birmingham & Leyland Rubber Company. Although obsoleted by the S10, production of the S6 continued in Turkey after the adoption of the new mask by the British forces.

During the widely documented Iranian Embassy Siege of 1980, the S6 is the mask seen being worn by SAS troops.

Ex-British army S6 masks are easily found on the army surplus market, but can no longer be relied upon to provide any degree of protection as the effective shelf-lives of even the most recently-produced example will have expired.