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Night-Ops Gladius prototype. - Page 1
Posted by Martyn on 03 April 2005 (7515 views) Rating: 2.92
Review: Night-Ops Gadius prototype.
A buzz has been flying around the internet of late, that buzz is concerning a new torch manufacturer and in particular, thier debut torch.
The manufacturer, Night-Ops, is a sub division of the much respected tactical gear manufacturer, BlackHawk industries. Thier debut baby has been released under the name of "The Gladius High Intensity LED Illumination Tool (it's a bit of a mouthfull, so we'll just call it "Gladius" for short).
Before starting Strategos, Mr. Good helped create the Surefire Institute force-on-force training academy where he taught the tactical employment of a tactical white light or weapon-mounted light for gunfighting in low-light conditions (nightfighting) or in complete darkness. Before that, Good co-owned and operated a force-on-force training school called Combative Concepts, Inc, which also offered courses in low-light gunfighting. Basically, Good's been teaching low-light close quarters battle (CQB) tactics and techniques to military Special Operations (SPECOPS) and law enforcement SWAT/SRT operators for quite some time, now. This tactical and law enforcement background has clearly shone through in the development of the Gladius, but more of that later.
The Gladius - specs:
Designed with Military as well as Law enforcement customers in mind.
Output: Specifications forthcoming (est. 90+ Lumens at Full Power - .8 Lumen at lowest Dim Setting). Bezel & Tailcap Diameter: 33mm. Body Diameter: 25mm (for weapons mounted applications). Length: (Bezel to Tailcap) 155mm. Weight: (w/o batteries) 6.63 oz or 188 grams. Finish: Hard Liquid Ceramic Coating. Colours: Black, OD Green, Coyote Tan and Sniper Grey Reflector: 27mm high polish parabolic type reflector. Optics: UCL Glass- 3mm thick, with an Anti-Reflective coating. LED: Luxeon III High Dome/Lambertian, 3 Watt. Batteries: Lithium 123A (x2). Runtime: 72 minutes on highest, 400+ hours on lowest. MSRP: UK= £199UKP, CONUS= $249.99USD.
The Review:
Before going into the review propper, I'd just like to take a second to thank Edgar Brothers, the UK distributor for the Gladius, for sending us this prototype.
First Impressions:
The first thing that struck me about the Gladius, what the size of the torch. I dont know why, but I expected it to be a bit smaller. It's quite a handfull, definitely not one for your jeans pocket. It's just over six inches long and weighs about 150 grams with batteries, a solid lump of a torch, no mistake.
Within a few minutes, I was playing with the various modes, it's very intuative - I just jumped straight in and found no instructions necessary to access most of the featuires. I love this. My big bugbear with the ARC4, was that you needed a PhD to understand all the modalities, not to mention an instruction sequence and half an hour to get what you want. No such pain with the Gladius, it's all obvious and stupidly easy to get to. Top marks Night-Ops. I shouldn't be surprised really, it's come from a good stable with a big emphasis on real world tactical application. The Arc by comparison, was an engineers torch.
This emphasis on tactical application becomes more and more apparent as you play with the torch. One thing I noticed, was there seemed to be some "slop" in the tailswitch. There was some vertical play in the switch, which initially irritated me.
I had thought at first, that this was "less than good" design, but it dawned on me that there was a reason for it. Not only are the modes easy to understand and intuative, but they are incredibly easy to get to by the big rotating tailcap. The torch falls into your hand very easily and with the tailcap pointing to the sky. If you were in a darkened room with just one hand free, bad guys all around, you'd want to be able to get the mode you need quickly and confidently - there is no room for error in this situation. The play in the tailcap is actually part of a rather clever construction which facilitates this. First, consider this picture to illustrate what you are doing...
You need to feel by "touch" alone, where the stops are, sometimes with thick tactical gloves on and reduced tactility. The slight play in the tailcap, allows you to get that feedback through your fingers. I dont know if this really is by design, or just a happy accident, but it serves the purpose.
The switch rotates through three major positions, plus one further rotation for lockout. I cant take the switch apart for obvious reasons, but you can feel that there is some sort of cam and spring system inside the switch. On the major positions, the switch has slight rotational play, then as you turn, the switch gets tight - seemingly as though you are riding over a cam, then it goes loose again as you come to the next position. All this gives a huge amount of "blind" feedback through your fingers. You can easily locate exactly the mode you want, in a fraction of a second and with your eyes shut. It's very, very well thought through. Even the "star" locks the torch into your gloved hand, for easy one hand operation. The military and law enforcement are going to love this. On a downside, this play does result in a slight rattle if you shake the torch. I dont know if there is a better way of building the tailcap to eliminate this, but having played with it, there is no way I would swap out the tactile functionality in the interests of eliminating the slight rattle.
The torch is very heftily constructed, machined out of high grade Aluminium, but not quite as beefy as the military versions of the Surefires (M2 Centurion etc). This is a prototype model and there was a little note in the box that said the finish was not the final finish. So I cant comment on the actual finish of the torch. It looked nice in black and there were certainly a few dinks and scratches where the bare Aluminium showed through, but that is meaningless as it's little more than a temporary coat of paint.
I'll update the review when I get my hands on a production model. The finish is set to be a smooth liquid ceramic finish, which is supposed to be harder and more resilient than HAIII.
The machining is very good though, giving the overall impression of a well built torch. Again, this is a prototype, so finish is something that could change, but I think the prototype will probably reflect the finished article in this respect. Obviously, I'm not going to take the torch apart further than the warranty allows, which is simply removing the tailcap assembly. Removing the head of the torch voids the warranty, the business end is not supposed to be user servicable.
On removing the switch you start to get an idea of whats going on inside. There is a sleave of some sort, sitting inside the battery compartment, which extends down the length of the tube. Visible at the other end is a PCB. That's about as far as I can comment on what is inside the thing. It's interesting to note, that the rubber O-ring is actually inside the mouth of the battery tube, while the outside of the tube is sealed with some kind of grease, to give the torch a claimed water proof depth of 50 metres.
The switch assembly is extremely nicely finished. It looks to be a sealed unit except for a just visible screw (in the pic below, you can just see it at the 11 O'Clock position). The battery spring is gold plated for enhanced conductivity. I'm not sure how much difference this makes in real life, but it's a nice touch of professionalism and it's been done on high end hi-fi's for years if that's anything to go by.
There is no splint ring for a lanyard attachmemnt, but one of the limbs of the "star" has a hole machined into it, presumably for a lanyard. Of note, there is no pocket clip.
On to the business end, the head. The reflector is not of the orange peel type we are acustomed to seeing with SureFire torches. The orange peel style reflectors do smooth out all the irregularities in the beam and give a very smooth effect, but some argue, it costs in terms of light output. It's very difficult to get a perfect beam with a polished reflector. If I were to be picky (which of course, I will be) some shapes and small irregularities are noted in the hotspot of the Gladius, but it's minimal and the general beam quality is consistent with a very high end torch.
If you hold the torch just at the right angle, you can also notice a bluish tint in the optics. This is an anti-reflective coating, which combined with the heat resistant, 3mm UCL glass, is supposed to let 99% of the light through it. It's another nice touch, looks pretty too. It may contribute to the blue-white of the output, but I cant confirm that.
I've done my best to evaluate the build quality of the Gladius, but with this being a prototype and not having the final surface finish, it's difficult. Compared to SureFire, I would say the machining is a little less fancy, and a little less fussy, but still of superlative quality. Aesthetically speaking, if a Surefire is an Aston Martin, then the Gladius is a Corvette, but a 'Vette with a brutal purpose about it.
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