October 26, 2021 – Evansville, Indiana
Cloud Defensive officially announced today that they have engaged Matt Jacques of Victory First as their expert consultant, focused on military/law enforcement applications.
Matt’s career has provided him with a unique combination of experiences that are highly valuable to a cutting-edge manufacturer like Cloud Defensive. After serving as Military Police in the United States Marine Corps, he served several years on a large Northern Virginia Police Department SWAT team as an entry team member. He was later was selected and served as a sniper team member until he was medically retired due to injuries sustained in a line of duty incident. After his retirement, Matt was hired as the Senior Manager of Weapons for FNH USA. He was involved in the FN SPR Precision Rifle Program; FN Belt-Fed Weapons section and the USSOCOM SCAR program. Matt was tasked with the user evaluations and New Equipment Training (NET) for SOCOM and the SCAR family of weapons. Matt left FNH USA in order to return to training law enforcement as a Firearms Instructor for The US Department of State Firearms Training Unit within the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, where he was tasked with firearms and tactics training of Federal Agents for Diplomatic Security both stateside and worldwide. Matt left the FTU in 2013 to start Victory First, and has provided expert consulting to companies in the industry under that banner ever since.
The decision to engage Matt as a consultant is just the latest move in Cloud Defensive’s larger efforts to re-shape the illumination market to better serve the needs of military, law enforcement, and civilian end-users.
“The weapon light market has been mostly stagnant for years,” said Sean McCauley of Cloud Defensive, “and we have never been comfortable with the idea of just making something a little better. Hitting the repeat button doesn’t really help anybody in
a meaningful way or solve any problems.
Our company exists to identify problems and deficiencies, create solutions, then produce and field the best lighting equipment on the planet. To do that, we rely on ourselves to a very large degree. We are shooters who train hard and stay very in-tune with the community. As such, we know precisely what needs to be made. We are also the design team. We’re the guys who create it all. When you understand what needs to be made and also make the gear, really good things start to happen. But we are not (nor have we ever been) in the military or law-enforcement community. We know a ton of those guys. But we needed an expert who has the depth of experience that Matt brings to the table. We needed a guy who would be able to immediately jump in and contribute in a substantial way. Bringing Matt on as a consultant gives us access to precisely that knowledge, thanks to his extensive first-hand experience in law enforcement, as well as his close relationships with countless law enforcement agencies across the country. We’re honored to have him on board.”
In addition to providing input during the development of new products, Matt’s scope of work will also entail demonstrating the capabilities and decisive advantages of Cloud Defensive lights to law enforcement agencies domestically and abroad as Cloud Defensive grows its capabilities and presence in the space. Matt will also work closely with the Cloud Defensive team as they increasingly move into the training realm as well, with planned low-light courses and educational content on the horizon as the company continues to grow and expand its’ offerings.
For weeks, Cloud Defensive has been hinting on social media about exciting projects they are working on behind the scenes, and this announcement seems to confirm that they are setting up some very big moves. Expect some large announcements on that in the future.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be working with the team at Cloud Defensive,” said Matt Jacques, President of Victory First. “They have created a compelling product line with industry-beating performance, and as a guy who still believes that ‘Made in the USA’ should mean something, the fact that they also manufacture their lights in-house is icing on the cake for me. They put out a product that I would stake my life on.”
If your department or agency would like to know more about the capabilities of Cloud Defensive’s weapon lights, please contact Matt Jacques directly via email: matt@victory-first.com
