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The little pad you're seeing on the land is the pull tab for the R in CIRAS(Combat Integrated Releasable Armour System). It has a metal cord that runs through all the seprate components of the vest and through the pad, so when you are shot or drowning of weight, you or someone else can instantly dissolve the vest into its parts to free you.
The land has it drag strap on the back and the maritime on the front, presumably you would rather be dragged on your back on land I suppose. I don't see that it would matter much which side it was on on the maritime as you'de probably release it if you were overboard... perhaps to help pull you up over the side of a craft.
FWIW, although the land opens on the front, you can use 8 single lines of molle worth of pouches over the cover flap (4 mag pouches for example). It has a velcro and snap to hold the cover down. When you need to get out, you pop the snap and lift the cover free of its velcro and the pouches on it simply lift with it, no biggie. Also, I only ever open one side myself and slide in and out.
I've heard it spelled and pronounced cummberbund, or cumberbund BTW, both seem correct and yes, both versions of the CIRAS have one and it does help a lot to stabalise the fit.
Thats my 4.5 cents worth!
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