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AUSA Gear and Gadgets



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Smile! You're on camera!
POV1 camera

We initially saw the POV.1 at D.S.E.I. in the UK a couple of weeks ago, but caught up with the V.I.O. folks again on the floor at AUSA. The all digital video camera delivers DVD quality in a slick little package. The lens is light enough to mount to anything, either using the versatile mounting system provided or with a bunch of 100mph tape. One way leaves the hair behind, the other doesn't.

The lens is attached to the deck via a cable that has an in-line microphone that did pretty well during our recording tests on the show floor. Setting the deck up to record is simple using the straightforward menu system. Then, just make sure the 4 AAs are fresh, stuff the deck in a pouch or pocket and use the wireless remote to stop and start the racorder. Since the unit is flash memory based, it records to an SD card, you can set it to continuously record and use the remote to save only what you want after it happens using a predetermined loop length. At the highest quality level, expect to get about 50 mins. of hi-jinx on a 1 gig card.

Available now for $850 from vio-pov.com. Cool enough that the 2nd ID bought a couple hundred of them to use in Iraq. Expect a glut of high quality, Porta-Potty push-over thrill-cam videos on YouTube any day now.
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Hot little number
New and improved combat stove

PEO soldier has a slick new stove on display. Called the Extreme Cold Weather Stove, it's designed to burn non-pressurized fuel giving Air Force loadmasters one thing less to fret about when troops board their aircraft. Key to the design is a ceramic pellet that draws the fuel up to the burners without needing a vaccum. The stove burns any heavy fuel and boils a quart of water at altitude in under 5 minutes. Like all the coolest gear here, it's still a prototype so don't toss out that flint and steel wool, just yet.
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Less on your back
Mystery Ranch Patrol Ruck

Mystery ranch showed a few new designs at AUSA. Most notable were their new 3-Day Assault Ruck, the Gun Slot and an innovation called the Bolstered Ventilation and Stability System (BVS). The 2000 cube Ruck has its own adjustable frame, a fast opening Y-zipper configuration that combines top and front loading convenience, a slew if internal pockets and locking buckles with a price tag of about $240.

The Gun Slot sounds like what it is. It attaches between Mystery Ranch's NICE frame system and any of their compatible ruck bodies to create a rigid sleeve that can carry an assault or sniper weapon with comfort and protection. Cost, $120.

Lastly, the BVS is a couple of rolls of ventilated padding on the sides of the ruck that hold your ruck away from your back armor plate, making it more stable and cooler. It's standard on new packs and can be added to your ruck for a few bills if you can live without it while it gets the upgrade at the Ranch in Bozeman, MT.

Probably the best gear related quote I'd heard all week came from Dana Gleason, founder of Mystery Ranch. I asked him about his use of 500D Cordura in his packs when mil-spec calls for heavier 1000D fabric. "Anything that burns through 500D is going to burn through 1000D ten minutes later," he said. The implication: why take the 40% weight penalty of the heavier fabric when it's onlyÊmarginally stronger for a few minutes of a bag drag protection? This goes right back to my other favorite gear quote, "Ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain." 'Nuff said. You go Dana.
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Ball-istic protection pt 2.
Support YOUR troops

With a pitch that includes getting a shot in the groin from a baseball that's lit up YouTube for a few months, Nutty Buddy inventor Mark Littell seems to be onto something. If you haven't seen the video of the former pro baseball player taking one from a pitching machine, then you're missing out on an office wince-fest.

His newest product, shown for the first time at ArmorWork's AUSA booth, is the Ballistic Groin Protector. It takes the athletic supporter a huge step forward by introducing fragmentation protection for your most precious cargo. Armorworks has done some preliminary tests, but a National Institute of Justice rating is still a little ways down the road. Unit price was unavailable on the show floor, but it will come in a few sizes to suit your ego. Not to be sexist, the company is also working on a verision that offers groin protection for females.
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LazerBrite 2
The K'Nex of flashlights

The LB2 is a little hard to describe. It's sort of a combination of a multi-colored chemlight and flashlight with the ability to combine the systems parts to accommodate a wide range of uses. The basic light is a diffusing tube with two LED lights screwed to each end. A different color on each end allows you to select the color of the tube when used in 'chemlight' mode. Unscrew the light from one end and you've got a spot beam coming out of the tube. Screw it on backwards and you've got an area light. Screw a dozen units together, end-to-end and you have your own Darth Maul lightsaber.

The units run on coin cells that provide light for as long as 300 hours, making them useful and more cost effect to use in place of chemlights in many situations. Greg Kennedy, co-inventor of the light, took time out from pimping his gear to relate some anecdotal evidence of this claim. He told me about an Army SCNO in Iraq that set up a check point for 30 nights using 12 LB2s without changing batteries in place of about 360+ chemlights that he would've used for the same purpose. I don't get paid to do math, but at $20 a pop for the LB2s, it seems like they'd pay for themselves over time.

They are made in Utah and are available sold alone or in kits with a tactical pouch, a map case or a 5-light LZ marking setup.
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Nice new digs
Bulldog attacks the ACU

Snipers love to complain about the ACU. Bulldog listened. Billed as a uniform that can go from patrol to stalk, the company took all that negative energy and turned it into something different. Bulldog changed the layout of the pockets, added some twists such as double opening pockets and also improved the abrasion areas by reenforcing them with non-skid type padded material.

But unless you are blind, you've noticed that new camo pattern. Tossing the love-it-or-leave-it ACU camo aside and striding right past Multicam, Bulldog designed their own camo pattern. It's called Mirage and it uses more colors than any other pattern on the market. It's is also less blotchy than ACU, spreading more colors out in a larger area that makes for less pattern repetition.

The uniform is still a prototype but has gotten the attention of the right people in the right places.
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Machine guns
30 pounds of pure punishment

Feast your eyes on the Army's latest .50 cal prototype. With the venerable old Ma Deuce weighing in at a portly 80 pounds, PEO solder put the old lady on a diet for a savings of 50 lbs. That's right, the XM312 is 30 lbs. Let that sink in a sec.

Okay, so with the weight down that far, recoil is going to be a problem, right? Brainiacs smarter than you and I figured out a recoil absorbing system that reduces the impulse from 1000 pounds of felt force down to just 250 pounds, which is still enough to keep everyone but Chuck Norris and Rambo from rocking this beast from the hip. Now you just have to wonder what you'll get to carry in place of those saved 50 lbs.
See the video
Read more about the XM3s
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Good for you, good for me
R. Lee Ermey at AUSA

Doesn't matter if you are a soldier, jarhead, pipefitter or a space cadet, everybody loves The Gunny. The line for one of R. Lee Ermey scribbles went around the corner of the Glock booth and down the aisle with folks looking longingly at other folks enjoying their beers at the Hesco Booth/Bar. The Gunny took all the grunt jokes with a smile, perhaps taking a perverse pity on the soldiers lined up to meet him. Listening to him b.s. with the troops you could hear his trademakred gravely voice almost, ALMOST, mellowing just a bit as the wrinkles have grown deeper and his eyebrows longer with each trade show appearance. But something tells me that even as Gunny gets older, he could still rip my head off and s--t down my neck.
INTENSE side-snipering action
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Protests
Pink thinking at the gate

It can't all be holding hands and smiling at what has become one of the biggest weapon and military equipment shows this side of the Atlantic. Exposition-goers got a a dose of Code Pink's ire this morning. In the photo is Bill Goetz, CEO of General Purpose Vehicle getting the Code Pink treatment from Gael Murphy, co-founder of Code Pink. There wasn't any paint throwing and the dirtiest words out of their mouths might have been when they were shouting "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, NOT THE WAR PROFITEERS" as soldiers and executives walked by them on their way into the convention center. Pretty tame stuff, so far.
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Sure as sharpshootin'
Covering all the angles

The ParaScope Urban Combat Sight gives troops the ability to aim their weapon around corners and shoot enemy fighters from behind cover. It works with any red-dot style optic for the M4 carbine and M16 rifle. The ruggedized, high-grade prism device weighs 13 ounces and mounts to on the M4/M16's M1913 Picatinny rail system. The simple design uses no magnification and gives the shooter an actual size image of the target. It's made by MTC Technologies and costs about $1,200.
INTENSE side-snipering action
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Sure as sharpshootin'
Guns + Geeks= Happy Snipers

The Marine Corps has long been famed for making it's own sniper rifles in Quantico, but even the best can get better as evidenced in the XM-3 .308 sniper system. Working with DARPA, Iron Brigade Armory came up with a weapon that the Marines of I-MEF have used in Iraq this year. The weapon Military Times photographed at AUSA was only days back from the desert and had a very effective (their words, not mine) tour in the hands of Marine Scout/Snipers.

So whats so great about it? It's only 16.25 pounds with suppressor, day scope and a full magazine, for starters. It's also downright stubby at only 48.25" long with the suppressor and it works seamlessly with the AN-PVS-22 Universal Night Sight. The unique suppressor, built by Surefire, uses a Fast-Attach system that maintains it's zero and causes no impact drift when in place or removed.
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New Oakleys
Half-Jacket sunglasses

So it's been a long day at the MOUT facility and its time to transition from super soldier into clubbing commando but nothing yells operator like a pair of M-Frames over your brow when you're out on the town. If you want to stay true to Oakley, in a couple of months you can roll in a pair of Half-Jackets from the military line with their newest optical technology, Transition Lenses. To make military versions of their sunglasses, Oakley takes their commercial shades, makes the frames matte black, ditches the nose bridge logo and subdues the side logos, then puts them up for sale at about 50% of retail on their military-only website www.usstandardissue.com.
The Persimmon-tinted Transition lens adds a ballistic lens that reacts to sunlight, allowing more light to pass when in shade or indoors. Meant to work on the battlefield, Oakley says it'll help soldiers identify threats and targets when moving from bright sunlight to shaded areas. The technology might actually save you some money, too. Since the lenses lighten up indoors, you might not have to take them off and risk leaving them behind.
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Jack Bauer's swim watch
MTM Night Ops Vulture

So there you were in the darkness. The wind and rain had sapped the power leaving you alone in the inky blackness of night. The stakes couldn't have been higher. It was way past your daughter's bedtime and there was just no way she was going to sleep without her favorite story book. Luckily, you had your trusty MTM Night Ops Vulture watch with their trademark flashlight-in-the-dial, so little Jenny could curl up close and read along with you. This is no desk diver watch, though. The folks at MTM built the Vulture to fill the needs of real divers that had problems seeing their watch faces during night dives. The solution is the addition of UV lighting that illuminates the face for as long as the bulit-in flashlight battery lasts, usually more than 3 hours, says MTM.

In addition to the UV light and the white flashlight, there is a strobe function. The watches quartz movement runs from a separate battery, so it will continue to keep time after you've had to charge the internal lithium ion flashlight battery using it's USB or ac charger. Built from stainless steel and coming in at 7 oz., 44mm wide face, with a chunky 18mm thickness, the Vulture will be available in January for about $650. Go ahead, be a hero.
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The "boom" in boom stick
Metal Storm grenade launcher

The 3GL is a 3 shot 40mm grenade launcher that isn't that much bigger than a standard M203, but packs a whole lot more power and utility. Vying for the same space occupied by Milkor's M32 MGL 6-shot revolving grenade launcher, the 3GL has a few distinguishing characteristics. For one, the M203 form factor allows a grenadier to carry a familiar feeling weapon instead of a huge six-shooter while still providing 3 shots faster than he can pull the trigger.
The downside? Metal Storm uses a proprietary casing for the standard round that is going to require a wholesale changeover in ammo inventory. Also, the system requires AAs or a 9v. While Metal Storm says the battery will last 3000 rounds in the final production model, one would hope its not going to go dead when you need it most.
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Killer robots
Metal Storm + iRobot = The beginning of the end

Weaponized robots have been around for a little while now, but you haven't seen anything yet. The iRobot Warrior sporting a Metal Storm 4 barrel, 40mm cannon attracted more than a little attention on the show floor. Metal Storm is known for its stacked electronic small arms firing system that allows their weapons to fire LOADS of bullets/grenades in milliseconds. Combine this with iRobot's latest 200+ lbs, 15 mph beast and you get the the grandfather of The Terminator.

The neat/scary thing was listening to Metal Storm CEO Lee Finniear and iRobot's Joseph Dyer, president of the Goverment and Industrial Robots division, talk about the idea of using semi-autonomous UGVs to provide perimeter security on their own, while a single person monitors them and takes command of individual robots when the need arises. Thankfully the systems were both working prototypes and there is still a bit of software to be written to get the robot and gun to work with a single controller, so we are safe from robot domination for a few more months ... or until a Cyberdyne Systems contract comes along.
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The bundle that will save your butt
Otis Individual Readiness Survival System

Otis, known for their weapon cleaning gear, has come up with a product in response to the Airborne community's request for a compact self-rescue kit. The Individual Readiness Survival System kit contains a Gerber multi-tool, an Otis M16/M4 cleaning kit, and an Ontario Knife Company strap cutter. The whole thing fits in a molle sheath and provides fast access to each of the items. It seems like Otis has gone and packaged three items with one NSN that are in constant demand, making it easier for your S4 to place an order for one item that scratches all three of your survival itches.
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Who's Your Daddy?
The father of all pouches

BAE's "Family of Pouches" line is otherwise known as the Eclipse system. With a large contract award from the Marine Corps recently for two items from the line, the Eclipse speed magazine reload pouch and magazine dump pouch, it's worth a look to see what's attracting the Corps's attention. The single mag speed pouch holds one mag on your vest or on a belt using a grippy interior insert that defies you to shake the mag loose. There is an elastic strap you can use to slip over the top for admin movements, but it's not necessary to hold the mag at the ready.

The dump pouch allows you to carry it packed away in it's own molle pouch, or hanging below the pouch rolled up with it's own strap. It's got molle on the outboard side of the pouch so you can molle more gear right on top of it. (Has "molle" become a noun and a verb?) The Marine contract will be hogging the production line for a few months, but look for BAEs Eclipse pouches through the usual outlets around Christmas.
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