Ron:
no one's defending surefire's lack of candor. at least i know i'm not. i believe the truth to be neither "wartime production demands" nor "engineers working on a fix". rather, its a bit of both.
as Al said, it could be possible the production lines meant for the 8AX have been retooled to step up production of other lights that have been ordered. is that hard to believe? as mentioned earlier, i think this is also evidenced by the slow production of the new led bezels.
your source mentioned that it was due to the engineers working on a fix, but he didn't mention wartime production demands. did he/she specifically state that it was due to that one and only reason, or was that just one of the main reasons?
it might simply be a case of surefire deciding that (without doubt, of course) there are serious problems with the 8AX lights, so they halted production to fix the problem before resuming production and delivery. since they're not using that particular production line, they figure "why not use that inactive production line to manufacture weapon lights that are on backorder?"
so when they're deciding what to enter on their website as a reason for the halted delivery of the 8AX lights, they have two options: "wartime production demands", or "severe problems with reliability due to faulty battery packs and other reasons we have yet to determine". they could put both, but what would be the better choice? i think 99% of companies in the same position would choose the former.
its definitely not morally correct, but very understandable. surefire might have really great and world class customer service (i fully agree) and they usually go the extra mile that most other companies don't tread. but above all, they are still a company and as such, they have to function as one and that means making decisions that may not always be morally correct, but for the benefit of the company.
so yes, if any of the above scenarios are true, then "wartime production demands" is as you described, a half-truth and i concur. how you might choose to react to that is up to you, and i definitely have no say. just try to be a little more understanding of surefire's position and be patient. i'm quite sure they'll fix the problem and when they do, production and delivery of the 8AX will probably resume, unless of course they're still bogged down by wartime production demands.
i'm more result-oriented, in the sense that i don't care how they fix the problem, so long as the problem gets fixed. my view on this applies to any company, flashlight or otherwise, and not just surefire alone. lastly, i mean no offence to anyone here and i hope i didn't come across as such.
regards,
winston.