TNVC—20th Anniversary & Wilcox ECOS-N Re-Release

Readers of UN12 and in particular followers of “the Clone Life” will be interested in some of what Tactical Night Vision Company (TNVC) has cooking in the coming months. Directly from TNVC:

“As part of our 20th Anniversary we will be re-visiting, and in some cases re-releasing and re-issuing (often in collaboration with other manufacturers and industry partners) some significant products from not only TNVC’s history, but the history of night fighting and low and no-light operations as well as discussing their history and significance to understand where so many of the products, technologies, and capabilities that we’ve come to think of as commonplace or unremarkable, or even in some cases outdated and/or obsolete—which then, ironically, in some cases increases their value to ‘collectors’ on the second-hand to an extent that far exceeds their original value.

“The first of these products is the long-awaited re-issue of the Wilcox Industries SOPMOD ECOS-N 30MM Aimpoint CompM mount, teased at SHOT Show in January of 2025 and a ‘signature’ component of the NSWC-Crane M4A1 and MK 18 MOD 0 CQBR (Close Quarters Battle Receiver/Rifle), a weapon system that in many ways has ‘defined’ what a ‘night fighting rifle’ should be in the modern era: a compact, lightweight, short-barreled, sound suppressor capable carbine equipped with a red dot sight, weapon-mount light, and IR aiming laser.

“Introduced in 1995, shortly before the onset of the Global War on Terror, U.S. Special Operations Command’s (USSOCOM) ‘Special Operations Peculiar MODification’ program for the M4A1 carbine and managed by Naval Surface Weapons Center—Crane Division (NSWC-Crane) laid much of the groundwork for how to equip warfighters for effective low- and no-light operations, to the extent that many casual enthusiasts regularly misidentify conventional Army and Marine Corps M4 Carbines as ‘SOPMOD M4s.’ The term has been integrated into video games and movies and pop culture.

“The Aimpoint CompM sight was eventually adopted both by the U.S. Army for its conventional forces as the M68 Close Combat Optic (CCO) and by USSOCOM for inclusion in the SOPMOD program and designated the Enhanced Combat Optical Gunsight—Navy (ECOS-N). Rather than utilize the Aimpoint QRP (Quick Release Picatinny) mount like the M68CCO, NSWC-Crane selected a lightweight, skeletonized mount for the ECOS-N developed by Wilcox Industries in New Hampshire, now most famous for the G24 NVG helmet mount, but a hugely influential and significant company in the history of VAS technology, accessory, and integration development, especially just before and in the early days of GWOT.

“As one of two Master Distributor Representatives (MDRs) for Wilcox Industries in the U.S. (the other being Own the Night, run by our good friend Larry Clow), we were among the first to be notified that after many years Wilcox would be discontinuing the CompM mount several years ago. The CompM mount, as it was commonly known by then, had had a good run—by the time it was discontinued, not only had the SOPMOD program moved several generations, or ‘Increments’ or ‘Blocks’ past the ECOS-N, in favor of more modern optics like both EOTech HWS and ‘micro’ pattern Aimpoints (such as the T2 and CompM5) while the U.S. Army had transitioned to the CompM4/M4S for the M68CCO program.

“On a more somber note, the Wilcox CompM ECOS-N mount re-release also coincides with another significant commemoration TNVC will be observing this year, the 20th anniversary of Operation Red Wings, Afghanistan, 28 June 2005.

“One of the reasons that the MK 18 MOD 0 CQBR and SOPMOD ECOS-N is so recognizable, why so many enthusiasts are interested in building replicas of them, is that it was carried by most of the SEALs who participated in Operation Red Wings and thus have been prominently featured in countless team photographs that have been published and re-circulated and even in the film Lone Survivor.

“Among the servicemembers killed in Operation Red Wings was Navy SEAL Shane Patton, a native of Boulder City, Nevada, whose family still resides there. TNVC has long been a major supporter of the Shane Patton Foundation. This year, the last KIA SEAL from Operation Red Wings will finally have a memorial placed in his hometown after 20 years.

“As we at TNVC reflect on the 20 years that have preceded us and continue to delve into the history and development of various technologies and products and practices and how they might impact the future it is important to remember that the advances and improvements and lessons learned are often not just interesting bits of academic or technical trivia, but rather progress that has in many cases been paid for in blood and by the sacrifices made by our warfighters and armed professionals.”

TNVC
Wilcox ECOS-N Aimpoint CompM Mount
MSRP: $195.99
URL: tnvc.com