Last summer, a disturbing video was circulated by the Taliban in Afghanistan showing captured U.S. weapons and equipment. Among the items shown in the video were U.S. military-issued night vision devices, or NODs. These optics allow U.S. troops to gain a significant advantage over enemy fighters during nighttime operations.
The devices use available light from the moon, stars, and other sources and amplify it to allow the user to see in the dark, usually in shades of green. Night vision devices were first used in World War II but did not see wide use by the U.S. until the Vietnam War. At that time, devices were typically handheld or attached to weapons.
By Operation Desert Storm in 1991, helmet-mounted night vision devices were being issued to many Special Operations Forces, aviation units, and ground combat units. U.S. tanks had night vision and thermal capabilities, and many troops credited these as being the single largest difference between U.S. and Iraqi armor units engaged in tank-on-tank fighting in the desert.
During the Global War on Terror, improvements in night vision technology have led to nearly every single U.S. service member being trained on and issued a set of night vision devices. Some U.S. Special Operations Forces units, such as the U.S. Army’s Combat Applications Group (CAG), better known as Delta Force, use night vision devices so advanced that they provide the user with an almost complete field of view.
Navy SEALs may have used similar devices during the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The team that carried out the raid did so in the middle of the night, with time on target-to-extraction in under an hour. This would not have been possible without the night vision advantage.
It’s been been nearly half a century since U.S. forces first gained the nighttime advantage, and for the first time, there is concern that the advantage we have enjoyed is beginning to fade. The Islamic State and the Taliban now fully understand the importance of night vision and have both had success in acquiring their own devices.
While not as advanced as those being used by U.S. forces, Taliban and Islamic State fighters are able to obtain night vision devices through various sources. The black market is full of night vision devices for sale and the internet has allowed stores to legally sell them. Often these devices are low-level, costing only a few hundred dollars, and are meant to be used for hunting. But the high-end equipment used by the U.S. military has been found available for illicit sale.
According to the Huffington Post, a North Korean native was arrested in Hawaii during a sting operation in which he attempted to sell three pairs of military-grade night vision equipment to locations overseas. Homeland Security agents arrested him when he tried to mail them to China in boxes labeled “toys.” The arrest revealed how easy it could be for an agent to acquire the devices and send them to countries like China or, even worse, North Korea.
The most troubling way that enemy fighters can acquire night vision is through the capture of U.S. military devices. The devices that fall into enemy hands are typically a generation or two older than the ones currently being issued to U.S. troops and have most often been given to partner forces, such as the Iraqi Army or the Afghanistan National Army. In rare cases, enemy fighters have acquired U.S. sensitive items, like night vision devices and laser pointers, left behind by U.S. troops or taken from them amid heavy fighting.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s “Red Unit” has been shown in propaganda videos to be equipped with night vision and weapons-mounted infrared lasers. They have used this equipment to attack and overrun Afghanistan National Army and National Police checkpoints and bases. In many cases, Afghan security forces find themselves fighting against an enemy better equipped than them and often using weapons and devices originally intended for them.
There is no way to prevent enemy fighters from obtaining this equipment, and it is likely that this trend will continue to grow. This will erode much of the advantage that U.S. forces have enjoyed during night operations and could force a change in tactics, techniques, and procedures. For example, U.S. troops operating in the dark typically wear infrared markers on them. These markers are used to allow U.S. aircraft operating overhead to know the location of friendly forces. Weapons-mounted infrared laser pointers and strobes are also used to mark locations and enemy positions.
U.S. forces may have to shift away from these tactics if enemy fighters continue to employ night vision devices. The use of IR at night might require similar light discipline as the use of flashlights or the utilization of greater awareness, on the same level as daytime operations.
Improvements in technology down the road may also help the U.S. military maintain a nighttime advantage. New devices that combine night vision and thermal imaging while allowing troops to employ weapons while looking through goggles are likely the next major breakthrough in this area. In fact, devices like the AN/PSQ-20 Enhanced Night Vision Goggles have already been fielded to some army units and are likely to be issued to more in the near future.
Maintaining a nighttime advantage is critical to the success of future military operations. U.S. forces operating in dangerous conditions against well-equipped enemy fighters at night is always a risk, but having the advantage of being able to see when your enemy cannot has created what can be considered to be the “greatest single mismatch” in the history of armed conflict.
