We are currently planning two options for “night sights”. One will be what we call the “stealth light” and the other will be a light charged front sight. Both will be options, via upgrades for all current and future ATS users.
Light charged front sight: Until now, this has been an alternative that I’ve avoided, because of the short amount of glow time after exposure to a light source. However, ever evolving technology has produced longer post light exposure glow times. Some variations will glow for 12 hours and another claims that a 24-hour glow response is available. We are now evaluating the length of the effective glow of these newer technologies. Producing a light charged front sight that will last many years longer than a tritium insert, be less delicate, and one where a single light exposure will produce an effective 12 hour glow (effective is the key word here) from a single exposure to light, would be a great upgrade to have. That means that a police officer could charge a front sight before leaving for his or her shift, and have that front sight stay activated throughout the entire shift. We would continue to upgrade to the newest (the longest lasting) glow technology as they became available. When and if an effective 24 and 36 hour and even longer glow durations are available, we will incorporate them. Should the glow time durations become that long, it would mean that just the casual ambient light encountered by the normal daily handling a firearm, could be enough for continued activation. When we have completed our testing, we’ll announce a ship date and the colors that will be affected. This upgrade is not too far away.
“Stealth Light”: The Stealth Light was conceptualized for the professional, though these units will be available to all. Given a particular tactical task, drawing attention to a continually illuminated sight may be counter-indicated. The Stealth Light will be no larger than most blue tooth devices and will attach around one’s ear, to glasses, or even to a cap or helmet. A switch will activate and deactivate the device. With the Stealth Light, almost all extraneous light waves, other than the ones needed to illuminate the Advantage Tactical Sight, will be suppressed. In a completely darkened room, with zero visibility, the prototype Stealth Light emits an almost undetectable, unless you are specifically searching for it, purple glow. With the addition of even the slightest ambient light, the difficult to detect purple glow disappears. We now have a viable candidate to produce the Stealth Light for us. More will be announced, as the project progresses. We expect that the actual production Stealth Light will operate even efficiently than the prototype.
About night sights: I’ve written before that I’ve always thought that night sights (tritiums), as we’ve mostly known them, were more for mental comfort than an actual tactical necessity. It is a very heartening, for some people, to bring home that new pistol, go into the bathroom, turn out the lights, and observe their sights glow in complete darkness. It is human nature to be encouraged by a light source, when enveloped in total darkness. However, with the need to identify one’s target, and the arm’s length reality of truly darkened encounters, one may wonder about the actual tactical relevance that night sights provide, as well as what may be compromised with the single-minded sight attentiveness of some who would use 3- dot night sights in darkened situations.
However, after having made the above statements, I believe there may be darkened situations were sight perception would make a difference, as infrequent as those circumstances may be. At very close to medium/close range, all one needs is a visible front sight. Identifying one larger and pointed light source would certainly be quicker than trying to find 3 small light sources, when adrenalin is running high and time is measured in fractions of a second. For the professional, by which I mean entry teams, special forces, swat teams, etc., controlling sight illumination via our Stealth Light could also make a difference in particular situations. The Stealth Light will utilize a minute light source, along with our patent pending non-essential wavelength suppression technology, and will be powered by the most energy efficient hearing aid batteries. Even with continued activation, the stealth light will be operable for very long periods of time without battery replacement.
This is where we are in the development of night sight options, for those ATS users who perceive the need for sight illumination beyond our normal ambient light sensitive florescent inserts. Your thoughts about these “night sight” options are always welcome.
Richard
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