For my part, although I didn’t hate it, I found myself a bit less enamored with the first-gen Hellcat than my friend Adam was.

I thought it wasn’t bad, and seemed to do a decent job accomplishing what it set out to, but not any better than (or in some cases even quite as well as) its competitors.

I could see why some shooters would want to own one, but I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t personally prefer some of its particulars like the trigger or ergonomics.

To be fair: my personal Hellcat testing was not extensive, with fewer than 100 rounds fired. But that was enough for me to basically say, “Okay, I get it, that’s fine.” and be ready to put it away. Fast forward to early 2021, when Springfield announced a new version.

The RDP model, or Rapid Defense Package (not Red Dot Pistol, as I’ve seen bandied about social media), features two immediately obvious changes from the original.

It comes out of the box with the addition of a factory optic and compensator, following recent trends in the handgun market’s aftermarket upgrade department which have begun making their way into some manufacturer’s default offerings.

It’s become clear (I believe) that pistol optics are likely here to stay, so plenty of companies now offer their guns with optional – or even standard – slides that come pre-cut to accept small red dots.

From Glocks to H&Ks to SIGs and more, it’s become increasingly common for pistol shooters to treat their iron sights as backups, in much the same fashion as many ARs have come to be configured. Springfield is listening to their customers on this, and has come to offer Hellcats with optics-ready slides as well as a model that comes pre-loaded with an SMSc, or Shield Mini Sight compact.

Now with the RDP, they’ve doubled down on the dots, with the inclusion of an optic from their brand-new very own in-house optics brand, Hex Optics.