As we head into the new year, Surefire is now shipping several new flashlights that were announced this past fall. One of the new lights now shipping is the new Tactician flashlight.

The Tactician is a 1″ diameter flashlight that runs on a pair of CR123A batteries. According to Surefire, the flashlight was developed to be “both an everyday carry light” as well as “an improvised weapon light.” This flashlight has a body made of aluminum with a hard coat anodized black finish. The light is 5″ long and weighs about 3.5 ounces.

Surefire states the flashlight has a maximum light output of 800 lumens with a runtime of one hour. As I have written in the past, that does not necessarily mean that the light will give a total of 800 lumens of light output for a full hour.

Surefire states the performance claim was tested per the deprecated ANSI/NEMA FL 1 (2009) standard. The standard allows a reporting of a runtime from maximum output (800 lumens in this case) to a 10% output (in this case only 80 lumens.) In theory, lights reporting under this standard could have an 800-lumen output for the full hour or 800-lumen output for two minutes followed by an output of 81 lumens for 58 minutes. Both performances would be reported the same.

The tail switch make the Surefire act a “momentary on” light while twisting the head will put it into a constant on mode. Also, you can switch the output from high to low (5 lumens) by twisting the head counterclockwise.

Surefire does not provide a candlepower measurement which provides a measurement of the peak beam intensity. Rather the company states it has a MaxVision Beam that provides a “broad useful wall of light.”

While the Surefire sales page does not list anyone that was involved in the development of the flashlight, the Tactical Response website states the flashlight’s “design specifications by James Yeager.” Yeager is listed as the “MFCEO himself” on the website.