Ex Historiam: Night Vision

“Throughout the history of warfare, the cover of darkness has provided a tactical advantage to one or another of the opposing forces. In their quest for a physical and psychological edge over their foes, military leaders since time immemorial have sought artificial means of penetrating the darkness and turning night into day.”

This installment of Ex Historiam discusses the development of Night Vision.

The music in this video plays like something from an old SyFy movie, doesn't it? Like they should have had Les Tremayne narrate it. It's definitely interesting to see how they looked at NODs (or NOGs or NVGs or whatever your preferred acronym is). Practical military use night vision devices have definitely come a long way from the so-called “snooperscope” and “Vampir” system used with the Sturmgewehr 44, even since the Gen 1 optics of the Vietnam War. As interesting as these older NODs to watch and play with, until they come up with some good night vision contacts we' d just as soon stick with GPNVG18s should we have to go into harm's way.

Thing about it. Hog hunters and recreational outdoorsmen are using equipment that is by an order of magnitude more efficient than what GIs were using during wartime just a few decades ago. Makes you wonder well we'll be when the kids in elementary school now are the officers and NCOs doing work. After all, they have (apparently) already developed an eye drop that improves night vision with the use of Chlorin e6 (Ce6), a material taken from deep sea fish. Ce6 has previously been used in cancer treatment regimens and more recently in treating night blindness in subjects with visual impairment. More recent tests indicate it could do much more than that.

We'll see. Meanwhile, here's a blast from the past.