AP Diving

AP Commando BCD (Element Comfort-Fit System)

A jacket-style BCD originally developed for the Royal Navy in 1981, built from AP's own Endura FX100 1000-denier cordura with a modular Element Comfort-Fit harness.

AP Commando BCD (Element Comfort-Fit System)
3.0Comparison Score
$500
Released—
Stylejacket
Weight-integratedNo
Lift capacity44 lbs
Backplatenone
D-rings10
Trim pocketsNo
MaterialEndura FX100 1000-denier coated-nylon outer shell, PU-welded airtight inner bladder (twin-bag construction)
Travel-friendlyNo
Dry weight—
Fitunisex
SizesS–XXL

"Lift capacity" is the manufacturer-rated buoyancy the wing/bladder can provide at the surface. Match it to your exposure suit, tank, and weighting, not the biggest number available.

Pros
  • In continuous production since 1981, with a Lifetime Warranty on the inner bladder's welded seams and a 3-year warranty on the outer shell
  • Element Comfort-Fit harness adjusts at the shoulders, waist, and backplate length instead of locking divers into a fixed-size harness
  • 10 welded aluminum D-rings plus a choice of Auto Air or APV200 emergency breathing/inflator valve, with an optional mini-cylinder for surface bail-out air
Cons
  • Maximum lift varies a lot by size, from about 31 lb (Small) to 73 lb (XXL), so the right size matters more than on BCDs with a flatter lift curve
  • Weight integration is a paid Rapid Release System upgrade over the standard cargo-clip pockets, rather than shipping weight-integrated by default
  • US pricing isn't published directly by AP Diving; the figure here is converted from their UK ex-VAT GBP price and excludes import shipping or duties
Diver community sentiment
Mostly positive

Across several real Scubaboard threads about the Buddy/AP Commando BCD line, divers consistently praise long-term durability, using words like "indestructible" and "over engineered," with multiple owners reporting 20-30 years of hard use without failure, and citing AP's lifetime warranty and easy parts availability as strengths. One diver liked the integrated weight pockets as a fix for body types that don't hold a weight belt well. Complaints center almost entirely on aging units rather than design flaws: plastic dump valves going brittle after decades and debate over whether it's worth professionally servicing a very old jacket versus buying new.

Scubaboard: Buddy Commando APV200 discussionScubaboard: Buddy Commando emergency valve/tank discussionScubaboard: Buddy Commando BCs long-term reliability

Summarized from public forum discussion (Scubaboard, Reddit, and similar), not a survey we ran ourselves. See the linked threads for the original conversations.

The Commando is AP Diving’s flagship jacket-style BCD, first developed in 1981 for the Royal Navy and updated continuously since while keeping the same basic waistcoat layout. It’s built from AP’s own Endura FX100 1000-denier cordura in a twin-bag construction, where the outer shell protects an airtight, PU-welded inner bladder covered by AP’s lifetime seam warranty. The Element Comfort-Fit harness adjusts at the shoulders, waist, and backplate length, and the modular design accepts AP’s Auto Air or APV200 emergency breathing/inflator valve, an optional mini-cylinder for surface bail-out air, and an integrated weight system upgrade in place of the standard cargo clips.