Night Vision for the Night Soldier

摘要

If current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have proved anything, it is that in today's asymmetric form of counter-insurgency warfare, every soldier on the ground must be capable of operating by night as well as by day. As a result, a night-vision device (NVD) of some description -usually a night-vision goggle (NVG) - is no longer the luxury item issued one per platoon. It has become the "must have" accessory any effective soldier cannot afford to be without.rnThe yardstick NVG today, against which performance is measured, must be the US Army's AN/PVS-7D NVG fitted with a second generation (Gen II) image intensifier (II) tube. Manufactured by both the former-Litton Electro-Optical Systems (acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2001) and ITT Industries' Night Vision division (each company bidding for a share of the annual production requirement), both companies also produce the II tubes, without which the NVG is inoperable.