Currently Insight Technology provides the SU-233 / PVS gun light which is more commonly known as the Visible Bright Light (VBL) III component of the Miniature Day / Night Sight in the Special Operations Peculiar Modification (SOPMOD) kit. Any new light will be judged against it and will have to show improved, cost, schedule, and performance. Please take note of the order of those words. The first two are what will get an acquisition professional in trouble, the last one is generally just icing on the cake.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane which is responsible for SOCOM weapon programs, recently released a solicitation for a new VBL III. Once selected, the awardee will be responsible for providing Crane with between 10 and 37,500 lights over the next five years in batches of less than 1000.
The list of requirements is extensive and very well written. It includes compatibility with Mil Std 1913 rails but I found it interesting that they were open to other attachment systems if the government could obtain rights to use the system on all of their accessories. Other requirements include waterproofing to 66 ft, and six operating modes which include full and reduced visible white light, infra-red, strobe, non-accidental discharge, and reduced glare modes.
One big issue is that the new light has to exhibit recoil shock endurance sufficient to allow use on all SOF small arms. Word on the street is that the current block II SOPMOD accessories have been having a rough time with the SCAR.
It also has to be compatible with a laundry list of weapons including naturally, the M4 and Mk16/Mk17 (SCAR-L/H) but also the AK 47 and AK 74, M14, and so on, as well as a few that had me scratching my head such as the M3 MAAWS (Carl Gustav) and M2 Heavy Machine Gun. You really need to look the solicitation up and read it. Some of these just don’t make sense for a small light like this. Pistols however, were not listed.
While Insight Technology has long been a favorite of the folks at Crane but Surefire seems to have built one heck of a competitor with their RAID M720 which seems to fit the bill quite nicely.
Full specifications as well as details of the solicitation are available here.
Based on a requirement from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division Surefire recently updated the mount for their popular helmet light. While it sill attaches along the lip of the helmet, the light no longer hangs below edge and can be mounted to the right or left side of the helmet. Additionally, the light can now be rotated along one axis so that the beam no longer has to remain on axis with the head. As we understand it, this is a line change and will be standard for lights in the future but as you can see the mount we looked at is a prototype. These will be available soon.
