Summary
Armasight is updating the expected release dates of three popular new products:
- Sidekick Helmet-Mountable Thermal Monocular
- Collector Mini Thermal Weapon Sight
- Jockey Mini Thermal Clip-On
We are doing this to ensure these products deliver on the performance and quality standard that all Armasight products demand. More details are available below for anyone interested in learning more.
The new expected release dates are:
- Sidekick 640 – Shipping Preorders
- Collector 320 & 640 – April 2024
- Jockey 320 – May 2024
- Jockey 640 - May 2024
Detailed Explanation
Ever since we debuted these three new products at SHOT Show 2023 we’ve seen incredible interest in these products. We’re no stranger to excitement - our Zeus Thermal Weapon Sights, Apollo Thermal Clip-Ons, Contractor Thermal Weapon Sights, and other products have been some of the most talked-about products at previous shows. But the buzz for these products, particularly the Sidekick, was electric.
The units many individuals tested at SHOT Show were late-stage prototypes. This is common at SHOT Show, as it is the best opportunity to debut a new product to the largest crowd. In our Product Development cycle, these units were about 90% of the way there, and we were confident in our projections of a late spring/early summer release.
After the SHOT Show, we went through one of the final steps in our Product Development cycle, which requires an extensive battery of tests done to ensure the device meets our exacting performance standards. Successful tests uncover a few potential areas of improvement, oftentimes areas such as potential ergonomic improvements or hardening of failure points.
During these tests, we were unhappy with the expected battery life in environmental conditions our customers across the country (and the globe for our military customers) may experience throughout the year. We were also simultaneously evaluating new electronic components being introduced by one of our European partners, and one of the advantages we discovered during our evaluation was significantly reduced power draw.
Our ArmaCORE™ thermal core is already one of the most power-efficient thermal cores in the world, but there are many additional electronic components that go into a thermal imaging device, all with different levels of performance, power usage, and reliability. This is one of the reasons why judging a device simply based on a sensor resolution is so ineffective – there are so many other components that impact the overall device performance.
We made a fateful decision at that point to re-engineer the system architecture to incorporate these new electronic components. These components had higher performance levels than some of the components we were previously using, and we decided to replace other components as well to eliminate performance bottlenecks. This became a significant set of changes, but our engineering team was confident we could still launch the product on our timeline, with a small chance of there being a minor delay.
Unfortunately, Product Development rarely takes a straight path, but this case has been particularly extreme. We’ve uncovered significant performance gains with the new components, but we’ve also run into issues with the core functions of the device that have required complete rewrites of our system software. While software often needs adjustments to work harmoniously with new hardware, rarely do you need to completely rewrite functions.
With all of this said, we are currently into our final tests and fixes. Our manufacturing facility in Arizona has all of the base components necessary to start building the products and are ready to begin a very intensive production cycle to meet demand. We’ve heard from numerous customers that if the product is close to ready and any issues can be fixed by firmware, we should release it now and stop waiting. While we understand the sentiment and know many companies in our industry would strongly consider this approach – this isn’t the Armasight way. When we release new firmware for products after they’ve been launched, it’s to make a product even better than what we promised our customers. It is not to catch up to what it should be.
We understand how frustrating the wait has been for many of you, and we sincerely appreciate not just your patience, but your continued interest. We’re truly blessed to have so many people supporting us in our journey to relaunch the Armasight brand and return to our roots of delivering innovative products that meet the demands of choosy professionals.
Be on the lookout for more news related to the launch of these products in the coming weeks.
Best,
Alessandro Minnocci
General Manager, Armasight