The lights you linked are for full displacement ships and wouldnt survive in a high impact environment.
The VS3 was by far the least expensive part in the entire project, but I sure got my use out of it and often used it to its fullest potential. Also, watt per watt, metal halide wouldnt provide the range necessary in this application, nor would the bulb survive the constant high impact loads a high speed boat, aircraft or moving tank delivers to it. The VS3 can be a flooder as well; I mentioned it in the review, but it has a variable focus that actually moves the bulb in and out electronically as well as warping the reflector shape to provide for the best possible flood beam. Of course everything has a price, and at $50,000 in 1970's dollars, it was very expensive to produce. It still remains a favorite today for military enthusiasts that enjoy collecting armored vehicles. I have a friend that flies helicopters equipped with Nightsun's best, and the VS3 has a superior beam pattern in flood mode.
I found an interesting link on CPF. This guy was only running at about 1/4 - 1/3rd the potential of his VS3 because it was powered by batteries. Check out post #9 after he corrects his camera for white balance and watch the other hand held HID lights fade to black. As has been mentioned many times before across the internet, a camera cant capture the real experience and power of the VS3. To put it into perspective, its probably at least 10,000 times brighter than the SR90 in measured candlepower (U.S. military defined as: light on target in center beam @ maximum usable range).