Yes, they have LED flashlights now. But LEDs are just the opposite of “brighter”. And the weight difference in the bulbs is trivial. The big two advantages are battery lfe and the fact that the bulbs for all intents and purposes never burn out.
The older issue socks were a wool-cotton-nylon blend that worked fairly well.
Last year I was issued winter weight Nomex and leather shooter’s gloves. They are quite warm and well made.
In case anyone is wondering what all this talk about gloves is, it is now part of the uniform. Today’s soldier is covered from head to toe. The days of rolled up sleeves are gone. Particularly in the field or in a combat zone the uniform includes ballistic eyewear, gloves and long sleeves, regardless of the weather.
Why is that?
The ones I was talking about were Thinsulate and this wonderful new material called Gore-Tex. This was twenty years ago, mind. (Good lord I’m old)
Why do they use Nomex for winter gloves? We had Nomex gloves as part of our flight uniform. Nomex is primarily used because of its fire retardant properties. I didn’t know it had any cold-weather uses.
Let me add another perspective on this question. It’s very boring, but bear with me, and you may see why it is relevant. It has to do with budgets.
Each year, the President submits a budget to Congress in February. To be ready for that budget submission, the various agencies have to start working now to have proposals ready to submit to their supervisors, who send it up to agency heads in the summer, who approve something and send to the Office of Management and Budget in the fall, who sends it back with changes in the winter. So as we speak, the various budgeteers in the Army and elsewhere are beginning to make decisions on what the budget will look like when it is sent to Congress in February 2010. So all these budget types are looking around now for what equipment is better than what is fielded right now.
Once that budget gets to Congress, they review it, and pass it by October or so. After that, the money is doled out to agencies by November or so. Then the Army has to go out and get a contract with whomever makes flashlights or whatever… but the amount of money they actually get to put on contract has already been determined, so it really is a choice of buying, say, 100,000 flashlights at $15 each or 50,000 at $30 each.
It takes a while for the contract to be negotiated, let’s say a few weeks. Then it takes a little while for the flashlights to be delivered, and a while more for the flashlights to be sent to the troops whereever they are.
In essence, the flashlights that will be delivered to the troops in June, July, August or September of 2011 are probably the best valued ones we can find on the market today. (Best value doesn’t mean most capable, or cheapest, but th best capability that can be delivered at the best price.)
So is it any surprise that a soldier can go to AAFES can find some nicer stuff today than what the Army knew of in April of 2007? Not surprising at all. And we’re talking about stuff that doesn’t even need to be developed or tested!
A boring and not really satisfying answer, I know, but very relevant.
The Nomex is for the flame retardant purposes. They are combat gloves. But in fact the summer weight gloves are the same Nomex gloves I used when I was in Aviation. They are already in the system, they are the right color to go with the ACU uniform and they are cheap. I am hoping they come up with something more durable but for now if they wear out you just get another pair.
Protection. Flame retardant gloves, also protect against minor hand injuries and lacerations. Eyewear to protect against flying debris and blowing dust. Long sleeves to protect against sun and insects plus combat ACUs are flame retardant.
Also, sleeves are worn long because if you have to hit the ground and start crawling, you don’t want to tear up your elbows. That’s just common sense.
The flashlight body is made of CNC machined aluminum and the machining process is slow and expensive.
Same reason a motorcycle clip-on (essentially just a 10 inch piece of tube) costs 150$
When I was in the Army, we got all our basic issue on the first couple of days. Then we got a small allowance every month (<$6). When your stuff wore out you had to get new stuf at your own expense. Probably still true. So when my gloves needed replacing, I would get the gloves I wanted just as long as they were acceptable wear by the army. Like Boots, there are dozens of styles and types that the Army will allow you to wear while on duty. A lot of soldiers class As would last for a really long time as they rarely used them, but some of us had to wear them every day so had to buy dress shirts and stuff more often. Eventually everything wears out.
I forgot to mention the other thing that is now standard issue, knee and elbow pads. There are hard-shelled pullover pads for when you are fully loaded for a mission and there are also velcro closed compartments in the ACUs let allow you to put flexible foam pads in. It is not something people think about when watching war movies but throwing yourself on the ground and crawling through the dirt hurts. A lot.
When deployed you can get replacements for free. There is a new system where you can order online and they mail it to you. I got replacement uniforms in less than two weeks.
For those that perhaps haven’t thought of this yet, there’s an important reason why we wear gloves and sleeves in Iraq.
Things in the desert tend to get hot, especially metal. Gloves aren’t there to protect us from the cold, it’s to protect us from the heat and wind. Without them, I couldn’t grab the barrel of my rifle, unbuckle my seat belt, touch a handle, or (Og forbid) pull my buddy out of a flaming vehicle. The wind is pretty brutal too- it’ll dry your skin out really quickly, especially if you’re the gunner and going down the road at 40 miles per hour. Not enough moisturizer in the world would prevent your knuckles from cracking open.
I think we are making too many assumptions here about soldiers. The role of a soldier to those making budget and tactical decisions is different than what your initial idea of their role might be.
We need to arm as many soldiers as is required with the equipment necessary to meet various objectives. The ultimate purpose is not to keep every soldier as safe as possible, as comfy as possible and powerful as possible.
The objective is to make the military as good as it can be overall. Maybe we can give up on some expensive weapons systems and spread the extra cash around to get everyone the best gloves and flashlights, or maybe we can generate more revenue from raising taxes.
As soon as an item is put into service, companies can out do that item and make it less-than-best almost instantaneously.
It doesn’t mean our military isn’t the best equipped. You have to look at the entire picture, not just the soldier’s picture.
Oakleys are standard issue for some units - SEALs, for example- and the lenses provide tremendous impact protection.
Anyway, there’s no way anyone in uniformed service should be paying retail prices for Oakleys. They’re usually sold at around “cost” in P/X shops- about 50% of retail.
Also, members of the military (as well as police, paramedics, and firefighters) can get Oakley Tactical gear at a significant discount through USStandardIssue.
You are bit behind the times. LED bulb technology has come a long, long way in the last year or two. My latest toy is thisand it outshines any similar sized standard standard bulb flashlight and has multiple power level setting including a strobe and a automatic SOS mode. The light output on high is quite literally amazing. Surefire style super high output lights are more powerful but have huge power requimrements and very short operational lifetime on a set of batties.
Xenon and Halogen are brighter, such as this
super bright flashlight, some 10X brighter than yours. But you are right, some of the new LEDs are very bright indeed, and go beyond the old standard bulbs in brightness.