Speaking of unnecessary complexity
The Multi Purpose Selector Switch from Modern Arms. A fancy pistol grip with electronic controls for lights, lasers and optics. Interesting concept in that when you put the selector switch in the fire, all your electronics activate. Pretty cool.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Can’t flash the white light on and off without a switch somewhere, the safety is not a light switch.
Optic only on when weapon is off safe.
These are two flaws that pop into my mind.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:02 am
This thing expects to turn your optics and assorted other doodads on and off with a radio signal, which probably means Bluetooth or something similar. Which means all your whatsits will need receivers, which will need more batteries, which will run dry at inopportune times, especially because you won’t think about them when everything they control is off. And, of course, your existing dealy-boppers may not be compatible with their system.
It’s a neat idea, but I don’t think it’s practical at this time. Has Future Weapons whispered about it yet?
March 25th, 2010 at 11:52 am
I was really iffy until I made sure the mechanics weren’t involved. Very cool concept, but I’m not going to risk my life on the prototype.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:59 am
I’ll pass. The safety should only come off when you want the gun to go bang. Everything else should be able to turn on/off at will.
March 25th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
It’s designed for operators, where it would also serve the useful purpose of telling the tactical commander who has their weapon off safe pretty quickly.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
“…when you put the selector switch in the fire, all your electronics activate.”
Why? So you can find your gun better and fish it out of the fire? Didn’t know this was a common problem.
March 26th, 2010 at 1:28 am
When I take it off safety at o’dark thirty after my door has been kicked in, there are no sights or lights, just point and shoot, nine times, then reload.
March 26th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Tommy Tactical’s Revenge. Another way to take a fine concept (the autoloading rifle) and ruin it by applying comic-book mentality.
Tommy is NOT done ruining our weaponry and combat style: the end result of this will be some sort of Universal Soldier, whose most valuable contribution to combat will be as a mule, trained to intelligently hump all this drek into battle, where his commanders will push all the buttons to make the drek work.
That mule will ALWAYS be challenged on the battlefield by a simpler soldier, such as today’s Taliban fighter. There will come a point when the “simple soldier” starts to win often enough, just because of simplicity, that commanders will have to reverse this nonsense and put our people back into the field as individual fighting men/women, not as some sort of a Star Wars drone army.
Maybe with my dying breath, I will be able to convince people that Tommy Tactical is NOT your CQB buddy, but I’m not having much success at the moment…