There are few people in the firearms industry who do not know about the Aimpoint. Some might say their products are too expensive. Other will say that Aimpoint is very slow with bringing new products to the market, but the truth is – their quality remains to be a benchmark for other manufacturers. And new COMPM5s red dot sight seems to follow the company’s tradition – it won’t be cheap, but performance and quality should be top notch.

COMPM5s

COMPM5s

Original COMPM5 was released last year in September and combined the best features from Aimpoint T1/T2 and COMPM4, it was small and light just like T-series, but used common AAA batteries that can be found anywhere in the world.

And just like with COMP M4 series, M5 now has two versions, the first one, COMPM5 with a high battery compartment, and second one, COMPM5s with low battery compartment.

COMPM5, 2016

COMPM5s, 2019

Some would say that low battery compartment obstructs the view less than high battery compartment, but I think it is just a matter of personal preference. Both versions have the same battery life – 5 years on the brightness setting “7” that is typically sufficient for most environments and situations.

The story behind COMPM5 series is pretty interesting. It was developed in 2015 and in January of 2016, the first M5  sights were spotted in Pakistan on FN SCAR-H which were brought into the country for trials that were a part of Pakistan service rifle replacement program.

FN SCAR-H with CompM5 in Pakistan, January 2016

Everyone at the trials was being very professional, so no pictured leaked to the press until the same rifles were showcased at the IDEAS 2016 exhibition in Karachi.

However, there was another leak, when new sight was spotted on the Capitol Hill in Washington DC during informational fair that Diplomatic Security Service hosted there on June 23, 2016.

Source: https://www.state.gov/m/ds/rls/c72376.htm

Apparently, COMPM5 series was developed after a special request of DSS, which wanted to have a small and compact red dot sight that uses common batteries. Until contract obligations were fulfilled, Aimpoint did not release any information about COMPM5 red dots.

The situation with COMPM5s series is similar, right now there is no exact release date due to contract obligations, but MSRP is already known – 981$.