Phalanx Smart Holsters is a Florida based company that has been manufacturing a unique holster that locks a handgun into position via the slide of the handgun, and requires a sort of rocking movement to unlock and unholster the handgun. It also has a thumb locking lever that must be actuated for the handgun to be released from the holster. The premise behind the system is to create a holster that is difficult for folks not familiar with it to be able to draw the handgun from an LE officer but yet give that same officer the ability to draw his handgun quickly and employ it.

New for this year is the Phalanx quick detach system that consists of two pins that are inserted into the rear portion of the holster and into a bet attachment. These pins have rings on the end of them that allow a user to quickly yank them out of position if one really needs to, but aren’t going to actually catch on foreign objects. This is because they are set back into the design, essentially on the beltline. Having a QD interface brings this system in line with other QD systems that other holster companies had for almost a decade now, to include Black Hawk!, Safariland, and G-Code.

Another new feature that Phalanx is pushing for 2018 is the ability to attach a baton mount to the holster, thus allowing less space to be taken up on an officer’s belt.

As a primary duty holster, I don’t know how many departments are going to be interested in this setup over a Safariland or Black Hawk! Level III version. But it is extremely modular and can be adapted to a number of handguns quite quickly. Any light can be used because the retention isn’t on the light here. I like that it can be configured to mount to a vehicle or other bearing surface as well.