XC3 Weaponlight

Archive for October, 2010

Crane Awards Visible Assets, Inc. Contract for Weapon Shot Counters

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Visible Assets, Inc.announced that it has been awarded a five year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division for up to US$5 million for RuBee™ weapon shot counter tags in response to Request For Proposal N0016410RJN87 “Weapon Shot Counter”. They will be used on the SCAR (MK16/MK 17) and M4 supporting weapon service life, overall weapon maintenance, and the prevention of catastrophic weapon failures. An initial $637,563.00 Purchase Order was placed for RuBee Ruggedized HandHeld Readers and RuBee shot counter tags.

Unique chip designs help reduce power consumption so the tags have a minimum five year battery life to a maximum fifteen year battery life in normal field use with conventional coin size Li batteries. Long battery life wireless tags make it possible to permanently seal tags into a MIL-STD-810G rugged package. The advanced state machine CPU contained in the tags is capable of providing complex real-time signal processing, waveform analysis, round interval statistics and a programmable predictor of barrel wear based on barrel temperature histograms. Independent test of the VISIBLE shot counter have consistently shown a 99% or better accuracy in basic shot counting mode. The tags can also facilitate improved weapons accountability.

John K. Stevens, CEO of Visible Assets, Inc. said, “This award represents an important milestone for our company. We have made a major investment in this technology and have worked hard over last several years to meet the high standards set by the US military for a combat based weapon shot counter. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with the experts at Crane as a result of the award. This award will help optimize our current weapon shot counting tag with many additional battlefield features so we can improve safety, reliability and performance of mission critical weapons used by our troops”

For further information on RuBee and Visible Assets, visit www.rubee.com.

MOLLE Gets the Mystery Ranch Treatment

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The issue MOLLE has been given a makeover by Mystery Ranch similar to the one afforded last year to the Marine Corps’ ILBE. The Mystery Ranch WELBE was unveiled at last year’s Modern Day Marine and is a program designed to adapt the ILBE to a more versatile carrying system; the NICE frame. At this year’s Modern Day Marine, Mystery Ranch showed us their latest adaption; the NICE MOLLE. They have mounted an issue MOLLE Large pack to a NICE frame. As you can see, the NICE frame is more armor friendly and can be used for a variety of other functions such as a pack board for outsized loads.

www.mysteryranch.com

Mecha Attack!

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

While the Raytheon Company is busy working on an adult sized robotic exoskeleton, Japan already has child sized mechs! Yes, I said child sized. The ‘Kid’s Walker’ from robotics manufacturer Sakakibara Kikai is a prototype bipedal mech designed more as a child’s toy than the perfect tool to smash a genocidal alien collective, even with its $21,600 price tag. Luckily, for those of us on a budget, it will be available as a rental at some point. Then your kid could show the neighborhood bully who’s really the boss.

-Tactical FanBoy

AAC Presents: CAN U – The Silencer University

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

For those of you living under a rock we will get you up to speed on AAC’s new informational website CAN U. Launched yesterday, Can U is an interactive website designed to educate the general public about current silencer laws and regulations. The site also features an Undergraduate section for civilians and a Graduate section for dealers complete with final exams. Successful completion of a course of study results in access to special offers and discounts. It is an excellent concept that not only educates but also makes the consumer part of a community of interest.

Check it out…www.aaccanu.com

BFG Name That Pack Contest Winners Announced

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Blue Force Gear is excited to announce the winning names for the “Name That Pack!” contest sponsored by Soldier Systems Daily a few weeks ago. There was an overwhelming response from the Soldier Systems Daily readership and it took them nearly a week to sort through all the names and decide on the winners. Blue Force Gear decided to go with the WWII Allied Operations theme that many suggested. The four winners will be notified via e-mail. Even if your name was not selected, Blue Force Gear would like to show their appreciation for your time by offering a one time 15% off purchase of any of their stock items. Please use the same e-mail address with which you submitted your pack name suggestions so that they can track those that participated.

Here are the winning names!

Overlord Pack (02) – Named for the World War II (6 June 1944) Allied cross-Channel invasion of northwest Europe.

Skye Pack (03) – Named for a deception plan carried out by the Allies during WWII, in which fake wireless traffic was created in order to give the appearance of units that threatened an invasion of Norway from Britain.

Vulcan Pack (04) – Named for the World War II (6 May 1943) final Allied offensive to clear Axis forces from Tunisia

Jedburgh Pack (05) – Named for Operation Jedburgh which was a clandestine operation during World War II, in which the British Special Operations Executive and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services joined with the Free French Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (“Intelligence and operations central bureau”), and the Dutch and Belgian Armies to parachute into Nazi-occupied France, Holland, and Belgium to conduct sabotage and guerilla warfare, and to lead the local resistance forces in actions against the Germans.

www.BlueForceGear.com

Low-Profile Armor Carrier System from Mayflower

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Mayflower Research and Consulting, LLC has offered their Low-Profile Armor Carrier for some time but they are constantly improving the system. Additional options are regularly produced for specialized customer requirements. The most popular make it to full production. The system is modular and you can combine front and back panels with various cummerbunds to build the perfect vest for your application.

As you can see, Mayflower’s SwiftClip Attachment allows a variety of Chest Rigs to connect directly to the LPAC.

Additional information coming soon from www.Mayflower-rc.org. The complete system, including new cummerbund options is coming this Fall to your favorite military outfitters.

Last Chance Reminder for MoH Beta

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Medal of Honor comes out October 12th, but before then EA is running an open beta from the 4th to the 7th. Included with the beta are two new maps; Shahikot Mountains and Kunar Base, two new games modes, Combat Mission and Sector Control, and a multitude of fixes including increased weapons damage, improved character hitboxes, and the inclusion of the F2000, G3A4 and P90 PDW in the unlock tree. It looks like this beta more completely represents what the final multiplayer experience will be when MoH comes out, so why not sample it now?

– Tactical FanBoy

Rising Prices

Monday, October 4th, 2010

First off, we want to acknowledge Death Valley Magazine for their coverage of this issue. Clothing prices are going to go up.

What essentially has happened is that rising cotton prices have combined with economic progress in China. You see, about one third of Chinese textile (and other manual labor intensive industries) workers failed to return after the Chinese New Year. The reason is simple. They’d rather join a service industry near their homes than travel hundreds of miles from home to work their fingers to the bone. What’s more, those Starbuck jobs at home pay better. Welcome to the American Dream.

This has been an ugly truth in the tactical industry since late Spring and unfortunately there is no answer. The cotton issue isn’t going away as it has been brewing for several years due to poor crops, but companies that have been manufacturing in other countries have a little bit of a leg up. We say little, because the cotton issue is still a factor and most of the high tech infrastructure is in China. Bet you didn’t know that the textile industry had high tech infrastructure, but they do. There are assembly operations that simply cannot be accomplished in the US because it wasn’t cost effective (US workers cost too much) to manufacture here so the machinery was placed in new factories overseas. Generally, in China. You also have to realize that there aren’t a whole bunch of factories that do this sort of work so all of the companies are waiting in line to use these same plants. So, the really gucci gear is built in Chinese factories and there is only so much capacity to go around. Take an adequate number of workers out of the equation and prices begin to rise. So this is an issue even if the clothing is made from advanced materials rather than cotton.

Now, let’s poor some gas on this fire. This affects the ENTIRE textile industry and not just our little microcosm so our companies are jockeying for position with the Big Box retailers as well as mainstream fashion producers alike. Ouch!

To be honest, we are surprised prices haven’t increased already. If you are contemplating buying that tactical tuxedo, we suggest you get mama to pick it up now for Christmas.

PS, this will affect footwear (and those tacticool hats) as well.