page_title: Entrenching tool
section_title: Contemporary
hierarchical_section_title: Entrenching tool / Contemporary
caption_attribution_description: English: Glock Feldspaten (field spade) entrenching tool. This entrenching tool features a hardened metal spade blade that can be locked in 3 positions and can be used for digging, shoveling and chopping, a telescopic handle made out of fiberglass reinforced nylon containing a 175 millimetres (6.9&#160;in) long hardened metal sawblade. The entrenching tool weighs 650 g (22.93 oz) and fully extended is 630 millimetres (25&#160;in) long. The spade and handle can be collapsed and shortened for easy transport and storage into a 260 millimetres (10&#160;in) x 150 millimetres (5.9&#160;in) x 60 millimetres (2.4&#160;in) package. The entrenching tool is supplied with a nylon storage/transport pouch that can be attached to a belt or backpack.
context_page_description: An entrenching tool, intrenching tool, E-tool, or trenching tool is a digging tool used by military forces for a variety of military purposes. Survivalists, campers, hikers and other outdoors groups have found it to be indispensable in field use. Modern entrenching tools are usually collapsible and made using steel, aluminum, or other light metals.
context_section_description: The United States Army intrenching tool has evolved since the time of the Pattern 1907 non-folding T-handled spade  to a tri-fold design with a modified “D” handle design with all steel construction, to a similar light weight plastic and steel tri-fold design adopted by NATO as the standard issue intrenching tool. Other folding variants have also been issued. The latest light weight plastic tri-fold design is thirty percent lighter than the all-steel tri-fold was: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) instead of 2.25 pounds (1.02 kg).
  The Glock Feldspaten (field spade) features a hardened metal spade blade that can be locked in 3 positions for digging, shoveling, and chopping, and a telescopic handle made out of fiberglass-reinforced nylon containing a 175 mm (6.9 in) long hardened metal sawblade. The entrenching tool weighs 650 g (23 oz) and fully extended is 630 mm (25 in) long. The spade and handle can be collapsed and shortened for easy transport and storage into a 260 mm × 150 mm × 60 mm (10 in × 6 in × ​2 ¹⁄₂ in) package.
  Soviet Spetsnaz units were well trained in the use of the standard short-handled Russian entrenching shovel ("saperka") as a weapon; by the nature of their missions, such tools were only rarely used for digging or entrenching positions. Modern commando forces, too, are trained to fight with entrenchment tools.
caption: Glock Feldspaten entrenching tool. Note: plastic telescoping handle and saw blade
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