#R&D

XS Sights out of Texas have announced some new tritium night sights for Springfield’s Hellcat OSP. XS are introducing the DXT2 Big Dot and R3D night sights for the optics-ready pistol. MSRP for the night sights will range from $110 to $132.

Kahles has been expanding their line of optics and recently came out with a red dot optic. Kahles is known to make extremely high-quality variable power optics and tends to be the competition and tactical division of Swarovski Optics. With Kahles being known for really well built long-range optics, it was a bit of a surprise at SHOT Show 2019 when they announced they would be making a red dot called the Helia for the commercial market. After four months of spending time with a couple of these optics, let’s jump into what my experience has been.

The US Army’s new centralized procurement organization has been named: In his address at the Eisenhower Luncheon at the 2017 Association of the United States Army, US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley announced the creation of a Futures and Modernization Command (FMC), which would oversee the process of research, development, testing, evaluation, and procurement (RDTE&P) from start to finish. In his address, General Milley outlined a new process which would fundamentally change the current procurement model to a new one based on that used by US Special Operations Command:

US Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley has released a letter outlining a major reform and restructuring effort for US Army weapons development, testing, and procurement. In the letter, CSA General Milley spoke of the need for a new procurement command structure:

This subject has come up in my comments recently, and I thought I would explore it in a post proper. To adopt the 6.5 Grendel (or, as we’ll see, something like it), the US Army would need to develop and procure new complete upper receivers, magazines, buffers, and possibly other small components, as well as the ammunition itself. How much would that cost? It’s impossible to say for sure unless it happens, but with a little napkin-math, we should be able to get some idea:

R&D Magazine (a nerd favorite of mine) has covered some development testing of graphene. Materials scientist Edwin “Ned” Thomas or Rice University has looked at the material as a future component to body armor. Its high strength and lightweight make it ideal for body armor (if it just wasn’t so expensive).