Aimpoint's New COA Red-Dot Sight Is An Inegnious Design.

The innovation continues with closed emitters and sight cuts that makes sense.

July 11, 2025 By Sam Wolfenberger

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Anyone who has been around the shooting sports for any length of time knows that Aimpoint has been a true pioneer in the area of red-dot sights for a long time. But for those who don’t know, Aimpoint started the ball rolling way back in 1974. You read that right, Aimpoint recently celebrated its 50th anniversary! Many ingenious Aimpoint electronic-dot sights and systems have come along since 1974, and the innovation continues. New for 2025, Aimpoint has unveiled the COA red-dot sight and the A-CUT mounting system for it.

The Aimpoint COA

Aimpoint’s new 1X COA red-dot sight is ultracompact but offers a large aperture and a wide field of view. The COA is 1.1 inches wide, 1.8 inches long, and 1.2 inches tall. It weighs 1.7 ounces. It’s a closed-emitter optic, which means that the electronics and adjusters are internal. The housing is rugged 7075-T6 aluminum alloy, and the finish is hardcoat anodized in matte black. The glass lenses are precision ground and coated before the parts are assembled and sealed in Sweden.

The COA’s windage adjustment screw is located on the right-hand side just behind the battery tray (more about that in a moment), and the elevation adjustment screw is located on the left-hand side behind the rubberized intensity-level and power-control pad. The adjustments are made in 0.5-MOA intervals, and there is a total of 60 MOA of adjustment.

COA optic intensity pad — The rubberized power- control and intensity-level pad is located on the left-hand side of the COA, above the elevation-adjustment screw. (Photo provided by author.)

The unit is powered by a CR2032 battery, and constant-on battery life is said to be 50,000 hours. Eric Poole, editor of Guns & Ammo, says that’s about five years, 258 days, and eight hours. I say that’s pretty darn impressive!

The battery is accessed through a tray on the bottom of the optic. But don’t worry, you don’t need to remove the COA from the pistol’s slide to change the battery. Removing a retaining screw on the right-hand side of the optic allows the battery tray to slide out. It’s easy-peasy.

COA Optic battery tray — The COA is powered by a CR2032 battery, and constant-on battery life is 50,000 hours. Conveniently, the battery can be changed without removing the COA from the pistol. (Photo provided by author.)

The COA’s 3.5-MOA red dot is parallax free, meaning the red dot remains parallel to the pistol’s bore no matter what angle the shooter’s eye is in relation to the sight. The COA’s red dot has 12 intensity levels. Eight are for daylight use, and four are for use with night-vision goggles. One of the great features of the COA’s dot, in my opinion, is that even at the highest intensity level, there is no distortion/flaring. As serious users know, that’s not the case with the dots in many subpar electronic sights.

Another key feature of the COA is that in combination with the new patent-pending A-CUT mounting system, which I’ll get to, it co-witnesses with standard-height pistol sights. That, too, is not the case with all those other red-dot sights that require taller sights in order for the electronic dot to co-witness. (Those types of pistol sights are often referred to as “suppressor-height sights.”)

The A-CUT Mounting System

COA optic and glock slide — The A-CUT system features a longitudinal, tapered mounting interface with the underneath side of the COA. In addition, the mounting system’s wedge-and-hook design “hooks” the COA at the front and “wedges” it at the rear. (Photo provided by author.)

The A-CUT mounting system eliminates the need for adapters or plates to attach the COA red-dot sight to a pistol’s slide. Critical to this setup, as I mentioned earlier, the ultracompact COA co-witnesses with standard-height pistol sights. That means the mounting system positions the optic deeper in the slide and closer to the bore axis. The idea is that by positioning the optic in this manner, shooters can recover the dot inside the optic’s window faster and more easily.

The A-CUT system features a longitudinal, tapered mounting interface with the optic, thereby supporting the COA along its entire length. In addition, the mounting system incorporates a wedge-and-hook design that “traps” the COA at the front, and a ramped rear-sight clamp wedges the COA at the rear. The result is a mounting system that keeps the COA secure in all directions. Said another way, the COA can’t work loose in any direction. Two pan-head Torx screws secure the rear-sight clamp to the pistol’s slide, and a T10 tool is provided. It also can be used to make windage and elevation adjustments to the COA.

Glock pistol with COA — The new Aimpoint COA will be sold exclusively by Glock for 12 months. At launch it will be offered on complete pistols, and replacement slides may become available by midyear. (Photo provided by author.)

To clarify all that, a square-notch rear sight is integral to the clamping wedge. The clamping wedge is secured by two screws. With the optic hooked at the front and wedged at the rear and interlocked underneath, it can’t move and won’t come loose. And no stress from recoil energy is transferred to the screws because the screws are isolated from the recoil.

Aimpoint and Glock have collaborated to offer the COA with A-CUT exclusively on Glock G19 Gen 5, G43X, G45, G47, and G48 complete pistols for 12 months. Rumor has it that Glock may offer replacement slide assemblies with the A-CUT by midyear. Innovative, well-executed, sleek, and secure are words that easily apply to Aimpoint’s new COA red-dot sight and A-CUT mounting system.