According to an article by Stephen Chow of the South China Morning Post, China is making a “Laser AK47” that can set fire to targets one kilometer away. Ok, yes I know it is NOT an AK-47. I am quoting the source and the source clearly does not know what an AK-47 is. The laser assault rifle looks more like the Chinese QBZ bullpup rifles.

Good evening everyone and thanks for joining us here for a new Friday Night Lights at TFB. In the weeks since our last edition we’ve lined up some new gear to review for the upcoming summer months. Today we start with the latest offerings from Inforce Weaponlights and give you a basic overview of their capabilities and specifications. But I’d also like to hear from you – tell me about your weaponlight experiences. I’d like to know why you decided to change over from one manufacturer to another or why are you loyal to one brand.

At a recent Close Combat Lethality Tech Day at the Pentagon, Program Executive Office Soldier showed off some of the new Multifunction Aiming Light, or MFALs, they have been testing. The new MFALs are designed to help soldiers acquire and hit targets quickly and efficiently in a variety of combat situations.

Night vision goggles are a great tool but are not always practical. Sometimes we simply have to utilize our natural night vision. In order to get the most out of our natural night vision we should understand how our eyes see at night.

Paul Kim (PK) has posted an update of his new M52 weapon light which we posted about on April 24. PK posted up this weaponlight Lego map showng all the combination of setups you can have with his line of flashlights. There are some very interesting developments in that map. It seems he is making IR heads and laser modules.

Many have been excited about the Surefire Fury (Dual Fuel Tactical) DFT and new M600 (Dual Fuel) DF Scout lights. These lights boast 1200 lumens with CR123s and 1500 lumens using 18650 batteries. Users may have experienced issues when running 18650s from other brands. In response to this issue, Surefire has offered a discount to those who have purchased Fury DFTs or M600 DF Scout lights.

There are endless tactical black or multi-cam bags on the market claiming to be “low profile”. These same bags display numerous Velcro patches, have pals webbing on the outside of the bag, and scream gun! However, the industry is starting to listen to those wanting a quality pack in a very non-descript package. In order to accomplish this task, the bag has to be able to sit next to your standard North Face or Jansport pack and not look substantially different. Let’s take a look at the Haley Strategic FlatPack.

James Krupp had posted this image below of his Beretta M9A3 sporting a SureFire X300 Ultra, Benchmade Infidel and SureFire A2 Aviator. This was posted in a SureFireholics group.

For those of you not familiar with Paul Kim AKA PK and his legacy of flashlight design, you just need to look at the flashlights that helped SureFire in the 2000s. He was responsible for helping to develop and design many of the SureFire Lights you may use and enjoy. The X-series pistol lights and Scoutlights along with the U2, Kroma, Titan, and the Hellfighter just to name a few. PK left SureFire to pursue flashlight design on his own. Last year PK unveiled his PRX rocket weapon light. It is a single cell weapon light. Well the new M52 weaponlight is a 6 volt 2-cell weapon light that uses a tape switch similar to the Scoutlight tape switch with a small twist, it has a 90 degree plug.

The CAA Micro Roni is a clever little device that transforms a Glock handgun into a personal defense weapon sub-gun. CAA designed the Micro-Roni to be modular. The front of the Micro-Roni can accept their front integral tactical light. The tactical light is actually a plastic housing for an Olight flashlight. You can upgrade this with a 900 lumen Olight flashlight.

Good evening everyone and welcome to TFB’s Friday Night Lights Series where we hope to bring you a variety of news, reviews and product announcements from the illumination industry. This week we’ve got a brief look at some of the upcoming reviews, which at the moment, includes everything from thermal imaging to frickn’ laser beams.

In a recent propaganda video released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Report Number 190 to be precise), a 7.62x51mm NATO MK 17 SCAR was spotted over the course of the propaganda video. Of course, there is nothing new about this development, we’ve covered the SCAR in use by the Taliban previously on TFB. But what is new is that we are starting to connect the dots on this particular MK 17, clearing up some of the misinformation and hope to even provide a possible explanation for its origins in Afghanistan.

Cloud Defensive has been making weapon light accessories that focus on controlling the tape switch. Now they are bringing out their own weapon light: The Cloud Defensive Optimized Weapon Light (OWL)

Thanks for joining us here at TFB for the second installment of the new series Friday Night Lights – where we hope to bring you news, reviews and announcements on everything from every day carry (EDC) flashlights to high-end night vision units and weapons-mounted laser designators. Case in point, while we wait for a few light manufacturers to come on board, we get to announce a set of new tactical light models from Pelican. On the other end of the spectrum, we are spinning up two new reviews – the Flir ThermalSight T50 and the B.E. Meyers MAWL-C1+ laser/illumi. I’m looking forward to reading both of them.

I semi-retired from reviewing flashlights…but when Olight reaches out to me, it is my pleasure to come “out  of retirement.”  I’ve mentioned this in Olight reviews before, but Olight won me over when they donated an entire day’s GROSS SALES PROCEEDS to the family of Marshall Hoots, the founder of Goinggear.com.  Marshall passed away at far too young an age, and the proceeds of the sales will definitely help his wife and children.

I confess that after almost 9 years of using, obsessing over, and writing reviews of “high-end” flashlights I’ve become somewhat jaded. Gone are the days when Surefire and Streamlight dominated the flashlight market. Now we have boutique manufacturers making titanium, brass, copper and exotic metal beauties…we have an onslaught of original and copycat designs from Asian manufacturers…and it seems that regardless of the lumen level of the day, someone always comes out with another ‘flamethrower’ boasting of lumen levels rivaling the output of the sun (just kidding.)

Our second installment of TFB’s new Friday Night Lights Series is focused on skill building with some of the best weapons handlers from the military, law enforcement, and civilian training circles. The set of SUREFIRE Field Notes videos on YouTube is an excellent way to spend a few minutes watching and listening to professionals as they talk about light manipulation, drills and the mastery of old and new techniques alike. Fans will appreciate the expansion of the ‘Field Notes’ series to twice its previous frequency.

Trigger Point Technology is a small company in California that has integrated visible and IR light and aiming lasers into controls on the magazine well and trigger of the AR platform.

As society continues to slip towards a life filled with the expectation that everything we need will be provided to us by someone else, the concept of ‘every day carry’ is falling by the wayside. I was taught from an early age, like many of you, that carrying a knife with you at all times was a necessity. Not because we believed a time would come that a situation would require slicing ninjas with a Buck folder, but because easy access to tools makes you less dependent on others. Much like the EDC knife, a proper flashlight should be required kit for the modern independent man or woman. Today, the SUREFIRE Tactician E2T-MV gets a quick TFB evaluation as a daily carry light.

The Strealight TLR series of lights have been a solid alternative to the SureFire pistol lights. They are reasonably priced and hold up well to heavy use. The TLR-1 and TLR-2 have been a staple for Streamlight but they are somewhat large as a two cell light. If you want a compact light from Streamlight then you can go with the TLR-3/4/6.  For single cell lights they have the TLR-3 and TLR-4 but those are polymer as are the TLR-6. Well now they are coming out with a single cell metal pistol light.

Recently SureFire has been pulling out all the stops with upgrading their lights. They have consulted with people outside of SureFire and that has helped to drive their lights to be more competitive. One example is the Scoutlight DFT. DFT stands for Dual Fuel Tech. The Scoutlight is the ubiquitous weaponlight for AR-15s. They are light weight, small and depending on the head they can emit IR or staggering amount of light. The problem is that they all run on SF123 or CR123 batteries. They are consumables. Other competitors have moved on to incorporate rechargeable Li-Ion cells like the 18650. Many of you may be familiar with this battery as it is used in laptops, Tesla cars and recently Vapes. For those nerdy enough like me to be into flashlights as a hobby, 18650s have been around for about a decade or more in custom or modified lights. Fans have been boring out their Surefire 6P and similar Surefire lights to accommodate the larger cell.

Building on the success of the MAWL DA, B.E. Meyers shows us the new and enhanced MAWL C1+ at SHOT Show 2018.

At the 2018 Steiner Optics 2018 SHOT Show booth, I finally got the chance to play with their newest DBAL model: the A4. With brightness settings for the light, laser, IR laser and IR illuminator, the DBAL-A4 is a versatile all-in-one aiming solution. Being a popular stop on the SHOT floor, I did not get a chance to look at the new Steiner TOR Laser consumer pistol device lineup.

One only needs to spend a minute or two at the Lauer Weaponry/DuraCoat booth to instantly recognize why the company is absolutely thriving.

At a time when every other firearms coating company strives to create exciting new colors and differentiate themselves from their competition, the guys at Cerakote decided to focus on something completely different with their new “imaging software”.

TFBTV’s Corey Wardrop speaks with Monty Scott, PepperBall’s Director of Training, regarding several new products from the non-lethal company.

SUREFIRE Spotlight – The powerhouse illumination company is moving their focus towards their core principles of designing extremely bright, durable and practical flashlights as well as listening to requests from current and prospective customers. Visiting the SUREFIRE booth is always one of my first stops at the annual SHOT Show, and this year didn’t disappoint. Besides launching new models, the California based company has improved several previous models to increase lumens, in some cases double that of previous years, as well as improve beam throw.

Aimshot makes inexpensive lights and lasers for firearms. They have a new weapon laser and weaponlight setup that comes with a wireless rail mounted remote tape switch. I was intrigued by a wireless switch since the cables on tape switches have a tendency to snag on things. This eliminated this problem.