After a lot of grinning, I gave it some serious thought, and came to the conclusion this is one neat gadget that everyone who wears a Kevlar helmet should have (other than the fact that it has a list price of $126). It runs on a single CR123 battery, and has three forward-facing white LEDs, and two blue ones for night-vision use. The button on the side controls the three levels of brightness.
An important feature is the infrared LED on the side, which flashes once a second, and is used as a IFF beacon for night ops. At the rear, the top switch is the white-on/off/blue-on control. The bottom switch controls the IR LED.
The design is ingenious, with the dark brown base being clamped semi-permanently to the bottom edge of the helmet. The light itself locks on to the base, and has a latch to remove it.
This gadget offers the potential of being a hands-free flashlight, illumination for NVGs, and an IR beacon, and you can't lose it unless you lose your whole helmet. After spending $100 a pop to upgrade helmets (and I hope they've finally upgraded all of them), this should be standard equipment, at least for all trigger-pullers.
way, way kewl... wisht Iduh had somethin' like that... we usedtuh strap mini mag lites to our helmets with innertube bands, but these are hi-speed...