Spartan Village is currently testing a new counterweight pouch. Although details are scarce, it has been mentioned that the XCP-01 capable of taking different sized weight bags and can securely mount a MS2000 or similar strobe.
Archive for December, 2013
Benchmade HUNT Teaser
Sunday, December 29th, 2013Benchmade has released a teaser video of their newest line of HUNT hunting knives. The line will be revealed at the upcoming 2014 SHOT Show.
5.11 Tactical SHOT Show Press Survival Kit
Sunday, December 29th, 2013
In preparation for SHOT Show 2014, 5.11 Tactical sent out a survival kit for members of the press. Contained within a 6.6 Med Pouch, they included drinking water, a granola bar, mints, 2 packets of Emergen-C, and some Advil. All survival essentials. They also included a Collector’s Boot Knife, although at their insistence, and because it’s common sense, that won’t be stored with the rest of the kit when it’s time for SHOT. You see, TSA hates it when we go through security with a boot knife.
In Case You Wondered What An ICBM Reentry Looks Like
Saturday, December 28th, 2013This video of a Russian ICBM during Reentry to the atmosphere was taken at the the Kura Test Range, located in northern Kamchatka Krai, a Russian Federation territory north of Japan. Amazingly, for decades, the United States developed permanent facilities in nearby Alaska in order to monitor testing at Kura but now hand held video is freely posted to the internet.
Gunfighter Moment – Mike Pannone 
Saturday, December 28th, 2013
What are you willing to do to protect your loved ones?
I was helping a good friend teach a group of mostly women from his prosecutor’s office and a woman who is an avid long distance runner and spends a lot of time training mentioned she carries “sometimes”. My response was “why sometimes and not all the time?” She said if she was out with her kids she would carry to protect them but didn’t carry when she was by herself. That led to a little discussion as we waited for the break to end and in a nutshell here it is.
If someone were maliciously about to do something that would grievously injure virtually everyone that you know and love especially your immediate family
…and if it that injury was painful beyond words and lasted until the day they died?
…and if nothing either doctor or hospital could do to heal them?
…what would you be willing to do to stop them?
If someone beats, rapes or murders you, you alone feel the physical pain but the anguish is shared by everyone you love for their lifetime. If you are killed your children will always wonder what life would be like if mom were there or cry at their weddings because you were not there to share the joy. Your husband would wonder what that dream vacation with the kids would have been like or how you would have grown old together and spoiled the grandkids. Your family would mourn silently every time there was a gathering with the most obvious presence being your absence.
So if it is a way to explain to a friend or family member why you carry, why you train so much and why they should, then enlighten them. Explain to them that you carry to protect yourself and by doing so the emotions of everyone that your life touches in a significant way if you were prematurely taken. Imagine all the pain you could save by successfully fending off an attack? Remember as well the person trying to deprive you of your life and by doing so injure all those you hold dear brought it to you! Turn it around on him, turn fear into anger and fight with the savagery of a lion. He might have started the clock but you stop it! Do not be afraid to do whatever it takes to stop the attacker, to protect yourself and by default your loved ones. You owe it to your family and friends. Be loyal and steadfast and defend yourself with courage and righteous indignation just as you would them if they were there with you.
In the immediacy you will fight for your life alone but in your actions you hold the emotional weight of many potentially injured souls…those that love you. Remember, nobody is more concerned for the well being of you and yours than you!! If that fateful day comes it is your responsibility to be prepared in advance physically and emotionally and be equipped and trained properly.
What am I willing to do to protect my loved ones? Whatever it takes!
– Mike Pannone
Mike Pannone retired from the Army’s premier assault force (1st SFOD-D) after an explosive breaching injury. A year after his retirement America was attacked on 9/11 and he returned to help serve his country as the head marksmanship instructor at the Federal Air Marshals training course and then moved to help stand up the FAMS Seattle field office. In 2003 he left the FAMS to serve as a PSD detail member and then a detail leader for the State Department during 2003 and 2004 in Baghdad and Tikrit.
In 2005 he served as a ground combat advisor of the Joint Counter IED Task Force and participated on combat operations with various units in Al Anbar province. Upon returning he gave IED awareness briefings to departing units and helped stand up a pre-Iraq surge rifle course with the Asymmetric Warfare Group as a lead instructor. With that experience as well as a career of special operations service in Marine Reconnaissance, Army Special Forces and JSOC to draw from he moved to the private sector teaching planning, leadership, marksmanship and tactics as well as authoring and co-authoring several books such as The M4 Handbook, AK Handbook and Tactical Pistol shooting. Mike also consults for several major rifle and accessory manufacturers to help them field the best possible equipment to the warfighter, law enforcement officer and upstanding civilian end user. He is considered a subject matter expert on the AR based Stoner platform in all its derivatives.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.
Breaking – Kevin Brittingham Wins Suit Against FGI
Saturday, December 28th, 2013Based on this screenshot we received a little while ago it appears that former Advanced Armament Corp front man Kevin Brittingham has prevailed in his lawsuit against Freedom Group who purchased AAC from him in late 2009. Brittingham’s employment with AAC was terminated two years ago, in December 2011 after FGI said that he had violated company policy by bringing personally owned firearms to work. He has maintained that the termination was a ploy by FGI to avoid paying him monies owed.
Tried earlier this year as Random Ventures Inc. et. al v. Advanced Armament Corp LLC et. al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-06792, the suit contains 14 claims and Brittingham wins all of them including his demand for millions of dollars he says are owed by Freedom Group (over 10 Million plus interest). Additionally, this ruling negates his noncompete clause.
Foxnews online has additional info on the case but has not been updated on this judgement from the court.
Some Not-So-Straight Talk From CSA GEN Odierno On OCP
Saturday, December 28th, 2013In a recent interview with the Army Times entitled “Straight talk from Odierno on uniforms, women in combat arms and PT tests” Army Chief of Staff GEN Ray Odierno answered a few questions regarding the Army’s impending switch to OCP as the principle camouflage pattern, ending 10 years of use of the so-called Universal Camouflage Pattern. His answers were rather interestingly worded.
Q. You expect the transition to the Afghanistan uniform?
A. I think the testing tells us that’s the best uniform, but we have not finalized that decision yet. You know that I usually don’t avoid questions, but it’s contractual, so I’ve got to be careful of what I say.
Ultimately, his comment’s support what I’ve been saying for months now; the US Army is adopting the Operational Camouflage Pattern.
However, I find two things funny about this article. First off, just weeks ago the Army Times published an article stating that the US Army wasn’t going to switch patterns.
The second thing is the very comment from GEN Odierno. He is speaking as though OCP (Crye Precision’s MultiCam) were a finalist in the Phase IV Army Camouflage Improvement Effort and the solicitation is still in source selection. OCP wasn’t, at least not as a candidate. It was however, a baseline pattern that the candidates were measured against. Additionally, Crye Precision was a finalist with a family of patterns that are quite similar in geometry to OCP. According to my sources, the Crye entry “won” the tests but due to ineptitude on the part of the Army no winner has been officially announced. It’s very important to point out that these are not the same thing.
Now, by even GEN Odierno’s admission, there is a law in place that restricts the individual services from introducing new camouflage patterns. It would seem that the years and millions of Dollars of development by both Government and Industry that went into Phase IV are now for naught.
“Congress has ordered that we can’t develop any new systems,” Odierno said. “Well, we have two, right now: the one that we’re wearing every day, and then the one that we use in Afghanistan. So, what’s the next step in how we transition? When do we start? Now, we want it to be as cost-neutral as possible.”
Instead of adopting a family of camouflage patterns for arid, transitional and woodland environments as planned in Phase IV, the Army is now set to forego the woodland and arid environmental patterns in order to field the solitary transitional OCP. It’s a compromise caused by inaction that has turned the most comprehensive camouflage study in history into no more than a report on a shelf. And while OCP is a fine pattern, the Phase IV winner performed better, offered more options and came with an inexpensive enterprise-wide license to print as much as they need. The make-it-up-as-they-go plan to transition to OCP on the other hand is more expensive and leaves the Army with a less advanced transitional pattern and no specialized patterns for desert and jungle.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing personally against GEN Odierno. But had the Army announced their winner when originally planned (June 14th), this all would have been water under the bridge. But instead, they hemmed and hawed themselves into a corner. It’s a situation that will cost them more to get less.
Afghanistan: On The Bounce
Friday, December 27th, 2013Shipping this month, “Afghanistan: On The Bounce” is a photographic study of day-to-day life for troops in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Documentation/production specialist in Afghanistan, photographer Robert L. Cunningham accompanied soldiers of 40 different units on 132 combat missions, following them during their typical on-base routines as well as into hazardous situations. Here are detailed examinations of the service members’ weapons, uniforms, vehicles, and gear, along with reflections on duty, insights into valor and heroism, and clear-eyed humor about life on deployment.
