Streamlight Inc., a company known for high-performance lighting (and one of the main sources of “tactical lights” for us and people like us), has introduced the Sidewinder Compact® III, a new ultra-compact, multi-fuel flashlight. The light is designed for hands-free task illumination, featuring a 185-degree tilting head, multiple mounting options, and user-configurable LED options.
The new Sidewinder Compact III is engineered with versatility in mind. It uses multiple LED sources, including a standard white light and infrared (IR) outputs, and offers a user-configurable model that allows users to pick their color poison: red, green, or blue LEDs. That allows hands-free work in a variety of conditions, from looking for the remote under the couch to inspecting something closely while wearing NODs. It’s possible you could use it to help throw a poor man’s rave in some deployed shithole to pass the time, but without actually trying that ourselves we can’t really guesstimate how effective that’d be.
Note that there are also specific models for military and aviation use, with pre-configured color options tailored for those applications. Each LED operates at various brightness levels and includes a strobe function. The light can be powered by either a single AA alkaline or a 3-volt CR123A lithium battery. This provides flexible power options and extended runtime, especially in a place where you might have difficulty obtaining one or the other kind of battery.
The white LED delivers up to 275 lumens and a beam distance of 113 meters on High. The company says the light’s run times are over 70 hours on Low with an AA battery and over 100 hours with a CR123A battery. Its color and IR LEDs also offer long run times and are ideal for preserving night vision or for specific signaling and task visibility needs.
Here’s some useless trivia for fellow flashlight nerds and geardos. The first officially issued flashlight that we’re aware of was a right-angle flashlight with a brass body, used in the mid-1900s, including service as a WW2 flashlight. It looked a little bit like an old school brass telescope bent at 90° one end. Eventually it developed into that green plastic angle-head light (the Fulton light is what it’s usually called) that pretty much every Cold War-era soldier is familiar with.
To prevent accidental changes, the Sidewinder Compact III features a compound On-Off mode selector switch with a pull-to-turn locking design. That means even the klutziest (or drunkest) of knuckle-draggers has a pretty good chance of getting the right color light at the right time, even if you’re wearing gloves.
Perhaps less significantly (but still important), the light is built from high-impact nylon, is IPX7 waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes. It’s impact-tested to 3 meters.
The flashlight measures 3.1 inches long and weighs 3 ounces with an AA battery. It comes with a durable belt/gear clip that fits existing Sidewinder® helmet mounts, with a cord attachment hole that can support up to 25 pounds.
Get what you need to play the song of your people!
About the Author
Jake “Slim” Call is one of the two most famous action figures in the world. Contrary to what Swingin’ Dick says, he does not like fat chicks. Slim has been a part of Breach-Bang-Clear since about ’05, and since then has traveled around the world spreading awesomeness, fighting evil and putting single dancing moms through college. Slim hates hippies, sissies and when the MRE Tabasco leaks into the toilet paper and dries there but you don’t realize it until its too late. Together with his comrade Richard “Swingin’ Dick Kilgore” Slim manages and directs an eeeelight blogging team of writers that thinks you can be a warrior and a patriot and still be amenable to civil discourse. Incorrigibility breeds contempt.
