Introduction

A survival kit works best when its purpose is clear. Without a defined purpose, a kit can quickly grow into a collection of equipment chosen for different situations, different priorities, and different expectations.

Part 3 focused on building survival capability by identifying the knowledge, skills, equipment, and supplies needed to complete specific survival tasks. The next step is deciding which of those capabilities a particular survival kit needs to support.

That decision depends on the person using the kit, the survival situation, how long the kit may need to provide support, whether movement is required, the environment, and the resources that may already be available. Those factors help determine which capabilities deserve the most support and where practical limits need to be placed.

The goal of this article is to help you determine what your survival kit is supposed to do for the person using it and the situation it is intended to support. By the end, you should have a clear purpose for the kit that can guide later planning and equipment decisions.

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Jump To

• Introduction
• Start Here
• Establish the Kit’s Purpose
• The Person Using the Kit
• The Survival Situation
• Duration, Movement, and Environment
• Survival Capability Priorities
• Limits of the Kit
• The Kit Purpose Statement
• Conclusion

Start Here

The Start Here section gives you a quick orientation to the main decisions that define the purpose of your survival kit. Part 3 identified the survival capabilities you need to build and support. Part 4 uses those capabilities to determine what a particular survival kit needs to do for the person using it and the situation it is intended to support.

Article Outline

• Establish the Kit’s Purpose
• The Person Using the Kit
• The Survival Situation
• Duration, Movement, and Environment
• Survival Capability Priorities
• Limits of the Kit
• The Kit Purpose Statement

This article covers:

• Establish the Kit’s Purpose: Determine the specific role the survival kit is expected to fill before making detailed equipment decisions.
• The Person Using the Kit: Determine how the abilities, limitations, training, and responsibilities of the person using the kit affect what the kit needs to contain.
• The Survival Situation: Identify the type of situation the kit is intended to support and the result the user needs the kit to help achieve.
• Duration, Movement, and Environment: Determine how expected duration, movement, terrain, weather, seasonal conditions, and available resources affect the kit’s purpose.
• Survival Capability Priorities: Decide which of the survival capabilities identified in Part 3 require the strongest support from this particular kit.
• Limits of the Kit: Establish practical boundaries for what the kit is expected to support and what falls outside its role.
• The Kit Purpose Statement: Bring the planning decisions together into a clear statement that can guide later gear decisions.

Use these sections to narrow the role of the kit before selecting individual equipment. Once the kit’s purpose is clear, the next step is to determine how its required capabilities can be organized. Part 5: Building Survival Capability with Modular Survival Kits continues that process.

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Establish the Kit’s Purpose

The basic purpose of a survival kit is to provide the equipment and supplies you need to survive the situation for which you are planning. A clear purpose keeps the kit focused on the needs of the person using it and the conditions that person is likely to face.

A Get Home Bag, for example, is intended to help you return home from work or another location where you are commonly away from home. A Bug Out Bag is intended to support evacuation away from home or another unsafe location. Each kit serves a different purpose because the survival situation, expected duration, movement, environment, and available resources are different.

The survival capabilities identified in Part 3 provide the starting point for deciding what the kit needs to contain. Those capabilities include:

• Cutting tools
• Fire
• Water
• Shelter
• Medical
• Food
• Navigation
• Power and charging
• Communications
• Lighting
• Safety and security

Part 3 explained how knowledge, skills, equipment, and supplies combine to create survival capability. Part 4 focuses on determining which of those capabilities your survival kit needs to provide equipment and supplies for, and which capabilities deserve the highest priority for the person and situation.

A clear purpose also sets limits on the contents of your survival kit. Survival planning should account for two important possibilities: the most likely survival situation and the worst-case survival situation you are planning for. The most likely situation helps establish what the kit will probably need to provide. The worst-case situation helps identify additional capabilities or backup equipment that may become necessary if conditions deteriorate.

The kit does not need equipment for every survival situation you can imagine. The contents should address the most likely situation while providing enough capability to deal with the worst-case conditions included in your planning. Clear limits help control weight, bulk, and complexity without leaving out equipment and supplies that have a defined purpose.

Kit roles such as EDC (Everyday Carry), a Get Home Bag, a Bug Out Bag, or an INCH (I'm Never Coming Home) kit provide useful starting points for defining purpose. The role name alone, however, does not tell you everything the kit needs to provide. The person using the kit and the survival situation also affect those decisions.

The next step is to determine how the person using the survival kit affects what the kit needs to provide.

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The Person Using the Kit

A survival kit should match the physical abilities, health, training, experience, and responsibilities of the person who will depend on it. These personal factors help determine how much equipment the person can carry, what equipment the person can use effectively, and whether the kit must also provide for someone else.

Strength, endurance, mobility, injuries, medical conditions, and other physical limitations may affect the amount of weight a person can carry and the equipment that is practical for that person to use.

Training and experience influence equipment decisions in a different way. Equipment should match the skills the person already has or the skills the person is actively developing through survival training. Carrying equipment without the knowledge and skill to use it properly does not provide the same survival capability.

Personal responsibilities can also change what the kit needs to provide. A person responsible for a child, family member, or someone with medical or mobility needs may need additional equipment and supplies that would not be required in a kit intended only for one person.

The person using the kit establishes some of the practical requirements and limits that will shape its contents. The survival situation establishes the next set of requirements.

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The Survival Situation

The survival situation helps determine what the kit needs to provide. A kit built for getting home after a disruption will have different requirements from a kit built for leaving an unsafe area, remaining in place, or supporting an extended period away from normal resources.

Start with the situation for which you are planning. Determine where you are most likely to be when the situation begins, where you need to go, whether you expect to remain in place or move, and what conditions are likely to affect you.

Plan for both the most likely situation and the worst-case situation. The most likely situation establishes the conditions the kit will probably need to handle. The worst-case situation identifies additional problems that may develop if travel takes longer, weather changes, normal routes become unavailable, or expected resources cannot be used.

The survival tasks identified earlier in the planning process should match the situation being considered. A Get Home Bag may need to support travel from work or another common location back to your home. A Bug Out Bag may need to support evacuation from an unsafe area and movement to another location. The tasks required in each situation help determine which survival capabilities need the greatest support from the kit.

Defining the survival situation narrows the range of problems the kit is expected to address. The next step is to determine how duration, movement, environment, and available resources affect those requirements.

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Duration, Movement, and Environment

The expected duration of the survival situation helps determine how much support the kit needs to provide. A situation expected to last a few hours will place different demands on the kit than one that may continue for several days.

Movement also changes the requirements. A kit carried over distance has to remain within practical weight and bulk limits. A kit used while remaining in place may allow more equipment and supplies because the user does not have to carry the entire load over long distances.

The environment creates another set of requirements. Temperature, weather, season, terrain, and access to natural resources can change which survival capabilities need the strongest support. Cold conditions may increase shelter and fire requirements. Hot conditions may increase water requirements. Difficult terrain may increase the importance of navigation, mobility, and equipment weight.

Available resources also matter. Water sources, buildings, vehicles, fuel, wood, transportation, and resupply opportunities can reduce or increase what the kit needs to contain. The kit should provide what is needed when those resources are unavailable or unreliable.

Duration, movement, environment, and available resources help define how much support each survival capability needs from the kit. The next step is to prioritize those capabilities.

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Survival Capability Priorities

Not every survival capability will require the same level of support from every kit. The priorities depend on the person using the kit, the survival situation, the expected duration, the environment, and the resources that may already be available.

The survival capabilities identified in Part 3 provide the framework for making those decisions:

• Cutting tools
• Fire
• Water
• Shelter
• Medical
• Food
• Navigation
• Power and charging
• Communications
• Lighting
• Safety and security

Determine which capabilities are most important for the situation for which you are planning. A capability that is critical in one situation may require less support in another. The purpose of the kit is to provide the equipment and supplies needed for the capabilities that matter most under the expected conditions.

Priority should also reflect the consequences of losing a capability. Water, shelter, navigation, or medical capability may become more important when failure in one of those areas would quickly create a serious problem. Other capabilities may still belong in the kit, but they do not necessarily require the same amount of equipment, supplies, weight, or space.

The goal is to establish clear priorities before selecting individual equipment. Once those priorities are established, the contents of the kit can be chosen to support the capabilities that matter most for the person and situation.

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Limits of the Kit

A survival kit needs clear limits so its contents stay focused on the situation for which you are planning. Without those limits, the kit can continue to grow as more equipment is added for problems outside its intended use.

The most likely survival situation establishes the primary requirements. The worst-case survival situation helps identify the additional equipment and supplies needed if conditions become more difficult than expected.

Weight, bulk, available space, and the ability to carry or transport the kit place practical limits on what the kit can contain. A kit that must be carried over distance requires tighter limits than a kit stored in a vehicle or fixed location.

Some survival capabilities may also be supported by resources outside the kit. A vehicle, building, fixed water source, another survival kit, or resupply point may reduce what needs to be carried in one particular kit.

Defining the limits of the kit helps prevent unnecessary duplication and keeps equipment decisions tied to a specific need. If an item does not support the person, situation, or survival capabilities the kit is intended to address, it should not automatically be added.

The final step is to combine these decisions into a clear statement of the survival kit’s purpose.

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The Kit Purpose Statement

The final step is to combine the planning decisions into a clear statement of the survival kit’s purpose.

The statement should identify who the kit is for, the situation for which you are planning, and the main survival capabilities the kit needs to support.

A simple structure is:

For example:

The purpose statement gives you a clear standard for later equipment decisions. If an item does not help the kit fulfill that purpose, it should not automatically be included.

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Conclusion

A survival kit works best when its purpose is clear. The person using the kit, the survival situation, the expected duration, movement, environment, available resources, and survival capability priorities all help determine what the kit needs to contain.

The purpose statement brings those decisions together and gives you a practical standard for later equipment choices. Every item added to the kit should have a purpose that supports the person, situation, and survival capabilities for which the kit is being built.

The next article, Part 5: Building Survival Capability with Modular Survival Kits, explains how to organize those capability requirements into modular survival kits.

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