Great perspective. Thank you for that.So way back in about 1983-84, there was an article in the National Tactical Officers Assn journal showing how LAPD D-Platoon (SWAT), in preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games to be held in LA, had mounted a Streamlight SL-20 flashlight to their MP5 SMGs using waterhose clamps. An SL20 weighed easily two pounds and was over a foot long. Threw a great beam for the time and you could also tune up slow learners with the mass of the light. As a young SWAT cop at the time, I and many others felt we had been shown the true way forward. I look at that now and die laughing in shame at my ignorance. A quick look at just the low end weapons light systems proves that very definitively. The top grade WMLs are simply mind blowing when I consider my frame of reference over many years.
We're going to feel the same way about the current crop of red dot sights on pistols in five to 10 years. These steps are the baby steps and are only a proof of concept. I don't think that the way forward will bear much resemblance to the final solution. Until we get optics that will go 50K rounds on a slide we won't be there and that's going to be a task due to the g forces the sight endures during slide reciprocation. Also, I'm thinking we need much smaller housings and think about mounting them much lower and perhaps forward on the slide instead of at the back. Time will tell who is right on this, but I bet you we'll be saying one day: "Do you remember all those RMRs and Delta Points we used to use?" while we die laughing.