this *IS* the version used by the US Military
The Kestrel 4500/4500NV is a pocket sized weather station weighing in at a mere 102 grams with NIST tracable accuracy trend recording data for plots of barometric pressure over time (in days) or windspeed (in minutes) and numerous calculations of wind chill heat index and many more. Its compass is one of the most accurate electronic compasses I have used (and I use garmin's frequently) with a reading to the nearest degree that is repeatable. Using just 2 AAA batteries and an included brace to prevent them from rattling causing compass errors it provides 400 hours of active usage or months of weather trend logging.
Basically the older 4000 unit had a few bugs mostly with the extreme case sealing to make the unit watertight so it could be left outside overnigt or dunked in the water. While you could buy the 4000 in grey or orange and get the same electronics the olive drab 4500NV is substantially different than the 4500 yellow model. The NV stands for night vision and uses a backlight scheme that is compatible with Gen 3 NV goggles. While both units are identical during the day at night the 4500NV has a dimly backlit display while the 4500 yellow case has a bright green backlight along the lines of the timex indiglo (TM) design. If you are using night vision goggles the 4500NV is the proper version however many people have complained that without NV goggles the backlight is not sufficient on the 4500NV compared to the 4500. Unfortunately the case color and backlight go together and you can not swap either. While the 4500NV is not invisible to the naked eye it is sure dim compared side by side with the 4500. To sum it up the 4500NV can be used on a dark night if your eyes have adapted.
Cons:
The 4500 is an amazingly accurate piece of weather forcasting equipment however there are a handfull of functions left out. Keeping in mind the 4500NV is a low power device designed to run for months of plotting pressure / temperature / windspeed trends it lacks such items as a moon phase calculator found in garmin's handheld GPSs. For a true military mission meterological data on a full moon or new moon is always taken into consideration but your gps will tell you that. Given that 2 lithium AAAs will power the 4500NV for 6+ months of 30 minute weather samples I can do without the moon function to know when the coolest time of day is and the pressure trend over the past 3 days.
I think both military and non-military users would have liked a design with a choice of colors and a switch in the setup menu for NV backlight or normal eyes backlight but perhaps we will see this in some new 4XXX model down the road.
Pros:
Basically it's a weather station in the hand and lightweight enough to take with you. It serves the medic the sniper and the intelligence planner with up to the minute accurate information.
Timekeeping is great - with a clock settable down to the second and fantastic accuracy it's seldom +/- 1 second with my GPS - better than alot of watches.
Another major pro - because the whole unit is hermtically sealed - if you want to know water temperature just dunk it into the water and set it for measuring temp. It won't damage the unit provided you stay within specified boundaries (e.g. don't try to boil it)
A personal favorite pro which is common to most kestrel units are 3 user setup screens in which you can put any reading from the supported set and have 3 "windows" for such readings. For example you can make one screen to measure barometric pressure related values one for temperature values (e.g. temp wind chill heat index) and the 3rd screen for wind related measurements (wind speed wind chill crosswind) which you use when the protector is open. In this way you can customize the display to your liking.
The final pro is that although you have a compass and altimiter you now have a non-GPS dependent navigation tool with fast response time and light weight. While the Kestrel 4500 costs more than some $99 GPS handhelds none of them can tell you if a storm is approaching and none will work for months on one set of batteries.
Overall the 4500 and 4500NV represent significant advances over their cousin the 4000 model. Choosing which to buy is tied to the backlight and case color. If you are really fond of the olive drab color at the expense of a bright backlight then the 4500NV is the model to buy. If a yellow case is fine and you prefer the indiglo style backlight the normal 4500 is the one to buy. Either way you'll be very happy with the PC connectivity accessories and reliability of your palm sized weather station.
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