Question - current US military issue night vision goggles

Infrared laser devices. A good example is the PEQ-2. You attached them to a rail and zero them just like a regular laser sight. They work just like a regular laser sight except they are only visible if you are wearing NODs (Night Optical Device a.k.a. NVG).

... unless you're in the National Guard, in which case you must use the monocle AN/PVS-14.

To shoot with night vision goggles, you use an IR-visible aiming laser, and don't actually shoot from the shoulder.

John Q. Pirate,

Using NODs instead of a night vision scope allows Soldiers to walk, drive, and see in the dark. A night vision scope would only be useful for shooting at something. It would be useless for other tasks.


Madcap_Magician,

I don't see where you are going with this. If not from the shoulder, where do you shoot from?


P.S. Unless you are in Germany and you use the old and bulky AN/PVS-7Bs.

Phantom Warrior said:

Madcap_Magician,

I don't see where you are going with this. If not from the shoulder, where do you shoot from?

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I've shot from the hip or tucked under my arm. With an PEQ-2 or -4, it's easy to get hits out to 150 meters or so.

I found it difficult to shoot from the shoulder because the NVGs get in the way of acquiring a traditional sight picture. I suppose you could use them over your left eye and they'll interfere less, but since you have to use the aiming laser to aim, a traditional sight picture didn't really make sense to me.

I guess I could see that. I find it easier just to shoot from the shoulder because it provides a more stable platform to shoot from. But I see where you are coming from. It's not like NODs can see far enough to really need to make super precise shots.

John Q.,

You are correct in that you can't use NVDs with iron sights or magnifying optics.

A head mounted NVD is kind of like having an SLR camera mounted in front of your eye. If you focus it in close then everything at distance is a blur. If you focus it "over there" then the iron sights or scope image is a blur.

You can use a laser if you wish but it's not very elegant or very precise past say 50 yds. as the beam, especially when seen through NVD, tends to run the gamut from blooming out so it looks like a pie plate sized blob or almost disappearing depending on the texture of your target. The further you get the wider the beam will be. Also, if you want to hunt with this rig many states wont allow anything that "projects a light beam" to be mounted on the gun.

You can use the PVS 15 or a PVS 14 (or similar) monocular with a RDS such as an Aimpoint T-1. Since there is no magnification, the focal plane of the dot is the same as the target. As long as you allow for enough eye relief to clear the NVD you use the RDS the same as you would in daylight, just on the NV setting.

The ergonomics of an AR rifle (straight stock, raised sight and pistol grip lend themselves more to the squared off posture you need to line up the NVD with the RDS. if you use a more traditional stocked rifle (M-14) where you tend to blade the rifle and wrap yourself around the stock you tend to hit the NVD into the receiver and have a hard time finding the dot.

Whatever RDS you use, make sure it is NVD compatible, otherwise it will soon burn the dot image into the phosphor screen of the NVD. (kind of like what the crawl at the bottom of a cable news channel will do to early models of plasma TVs.