TOTALLY TUBULAR

Throughout human history, our species has always looked for advantages in both technology and tactics. The rock became the club, which became the spear, which became the arrow, and finally the firearm. The sword was always more important than the shield, and of fensive technology was always forward-thinking and progressive. Regardless of time, culture, race, or creed, humans have always looked at our resources and thought, how can we weaponize this? One of the biggest hindrances to warfare has always been darkness — sure, fighting happened at night, but up until recently, it wasn’t conducted the way we do business in this century.

Enter image intensification, more commonly known as night vision (NV). It’s light amplification on a large scale, turning very small amounts of light photons (be they visible or infrared) into multiplied electrons, then back to photons in a wavelength that our feeble human eyes can see. It’s been around since the 1940s in its infant form, but I’ll spare you that boring lecture. First and foremost, NV was designed for of fensive operations — moving to and from a point of origin to close with and destroy the enemy. This is the advantage image intensification has over other technologies that can see into and through the darkness.

This article isn’t about the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of NV usage in a survival situation or combat zone. That’s for another night, and best left to others to