Force Multipliers - Part 3

The previous two articles should have provided plenty of context for what follows. There are many things that should come before any conversations about owning the night. But if you follow our advice and work hard on ticking all of the preceding boxes there might eventually come a time where you want to seriously consider it.

Bad things happen at night because the inability to see fully favors the predator and predators don't like others to see what they are up to. While quality body armor and a decent suppressor are good to have, they are not quite force multipliers in the way that a night vision device or thermal imager are. A night vision device amplifies the low levels of existing light to allow you to see and identify things in your night time environment way beyond the capability of your Mark One eyeball. But it can only amplify the light that is hitting the environment - either the ambient background light (eg. from the moon) or invisible (infrared) light with which you actively illuminate the scene. A thermal imager, on the other hand, detects variations in the heat signature of objects in the environment and anything hotter (or colder) that the background temperature "pops" out. A thermal imager is best thought of as a threat detector: it is passive (ie. does not potentially broadcast your position) and readily shows the presence of any animal (two legged or otherwise) under the most pitch black conditions. The colder the background temperature, the more warm bodies stand out. Depending on the resolution and settings of the thermal imager, the humidity and any foliage in front of the target, it might however, be difficult to distinguish between a bedded deer and a crouching man. Night vision is best thought of for identification of threats (eg. after detected by a thermal imager) and for navigation in low light conditions.

We warn you now, this is another slippery slope and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the choices for "wizard eyes" that are out there. Unlimited budget? Great, slap down $20,000-50,000 and have immense fun wringing out all the permutations and combinations of technology, specifications and performance. Back in the real world, the cost of entry is much, much less, though it is still significant. Please avoid the really cheap devices. Yes, you can pick a Gen One night vision viewer for $400 and a 120 thermal imager for about the same. But these are not tactically worthwhile. Nor, really, are the digital night vision gadgets from eg. Sionyx. The technology is still immature, whatever the marketing hype. $2500 is the entry point for a meaningful analogue night vision device and similar for a thermal imager. If you cannot afford either, then we strongly encourage you to save your pennies until you can. Even if it means selling a few guns, especially if you have multiple AR15s, to do so. The ability to observe the nighttime landscape, move around safely and confidently in it and get early warning of any danger is truly a superhuman power. And, when only you have it, you are at a huge advantage over any potential opponent.

If you can only afford one item, then let it be a Gen 3 PVS14 monocular in green phosphor. This is the standard military issue device. You get a lot of capability with just the monocular as it allows you to observe and navigate by simply holding it up to your eye. Just watching the night sky and seeing just how many more stars are up there invisible to the naked eye will put a smile on your face. But watching critters around the neighborhood and checking out your backyard will provide immense reassurance that you can see what is out there without anyone seeing you. In due course, you will want to add a cheap "bump" (non ballistic) helmet with a shroud on it and a mount so you can attach the monocular to go hands-free. This makes walking around easier and allows you to use your hands for other tasks (eg. carrying a rifle). With the monocular head mounted, you will also want a sighting device on your carbine which has a night vision setting such as a red dot or hologram where the intensity of the dot can be dialed down to where you can still see it through the monocular but it does not bloom out and prevent a clear sight picture. Another potentially useful accessory for the rifle is an infrared (IR) laser. This can only be seen through the PVS14 and, once zeroed to the rifle, it allows you to look over the top of your rifle, see where the dot is pointing and, if appropriate, put a round on that very spot. You must, however, accept that any enemy who also uses night vision will be able to identify your position as they track your laser beam. The same goes for any IR illuminator you also employ (whether fixed on your rifle or handheld). This is why so-called "passive aiming" is gaining popularity in which you only use the IR setting on eg. a red dot sight with no other aids.

This is turn leads to a debate as to which eye, when helmet mounted, gets the PVS14. The answer is to experiment and determine which works best for you in your circumstances, equipment combination and eye - brain interface. Many favor placing the PVS14 over the non-dominant eye ie. if you look through your weapon sight with your right eye (as most who are right handed would), you would have the PVS14 mounted over your left eye. This can lead to the brain producing a sort of superimposed view in which the left eye sees the enhanced scene in green while the right eye maintains its natural night vision and can see the the red dot or hologram of the weapon sight on a low but non-NV setting. The brain puts the two together to allow rapid target acquisition and accurate shots. This avoids several things, including any need to change cheek weld on the rifle to fit the PVS14 behind the weapon sight and having to be careful not to ruin noise discipline by banging the PVS14 into the same weapon sight.

But, if you are dispensing with the IR laser and sighting solely by passive aiming, then proponents of this technique require you to get the PVS14 behind the red dot sight and they would be mounting on their right eye (if right handed/right eye dominant). Find out which you prefer. And, as you advance, work on becoming as much of an ambidextrous night time shooter as you are in the daylight. Shooting from behind cover or inside a structure demands as much flexibility as you can muster between hands and eyes. Another tip: suppressors really help tame any fireball from the muzzle which can bloom out the view through the PVS14 causing temporary blindness. But you can achieve close the same effect (though without the sound suppression, obviously) with something like the Smith Vortex flash eliminator. Very worthwhile if, for whatever reason, you do not have a suppressor on your main rifle.

While the PVS14 and other night vision scopes have the ability to be mounted directly on a rifle (up to certain calibers and their levels of recoil force), we recommend against doing so - especially whenever you are foot mobile. Once your night viewing device is fixed on a gun, you must point it at anything you want to take a look at. This very quickly violates the axioms of gun safety, making you potentially point it at something you would never want to shoot. We can accept that certain scenarios make a weapon mounted night sight acceptable eg. static coyote hunting in open terrain or when in a defensive "overwatch" position in your neighborhood. Scanning the terrain (finger off the trigger) while settled in behind the night sight and in careful observation mode can be made to work safely. But for anything more dynamic, keep it head mounted or hand held.

For a thermal imager, $2500 gets you into something like the Bering Optics Hogster range where you will want a 320 core as a minimum. 20 years ago a device with a similar specification would have cost $30,000 and it is amazing how significantly the technology has evolved. Although it continues to evolve, with several other companies jumping into the game, at the lower end the market has stabilized and you get great (relative) value for money. Such a device will allow you to spot deer hiding in hedgerows, owls up in the trees and any other creature out to a few hundred yards. Depending on the background temperature, foliage and distance you might not be able to identify precisely what it is but you will definitely know that something is there and that it may require further investigation. Thermals work equally well in urban environments where you can see the literal warm tire tracks of vehicles that have passed down a street and other oddities as well as any predator lurking in the shadows. It is, however, a feature of the technology that it does not see through glass and so you need to keep this in mind if you are navigating threats around buildings or vehicles. The military has also been doing increasing work on defeating thermal imagers for individual soldiers and there are various commercial products which essentially combine insulated space blankets with camouflage nets or ghillie suits to provide some protection. Again, much depends on the ambient temperature gradient, foliage, activity level and distance in terms of their effectiveness. Heat tends to bleed out of any concealment given enough time and it is fun to conduct your own experiments if you have some willing volunteers.

Beyond this, the slope gets very slippery indeed. A white phosphor PVS14 can offer a clearer picture and less eye strain for more money. While two PVS14s can be mounted to a helmet for binocular vision, they are quite heavy and nowhere near as comfortable as lightweight dedicated binoculars (eg. BNVD or RNVGs) but the latter are $6000 plus. Powerful, quality IR aiming devices slaved to visible lasers (for easier sighting in) and with strong built in illumination go for several thousand dollars. 640 core thermals offer much higher resolution and, therefore, a clearer picture out to greater distances (depending on the objective lens chosen) but for double the price. You can spend $40,000 on a set of GPNVGs, basically four tubes hanging off your helmet for peripheral vision (just like in the movie Zero Dark Thirty for the raid on Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan). Similar amounts can be spent on "fusion" systems which combine all the advantages of night vision and thermal into one device in a variety of overlays and give you Hollywood science fiction vision akin to The Predator (to quote another movie). There are cheaper ways of achieving a level of fusion vision and they are certainly fun to play around with but they are beyond the scope of what we are trying to achieve here. A single green phosphor PVS14 and a 35mm Hogster Thermal put you in the 99.9% category ahead of everyone else, including - probably - your local police department.

Indeed, rather than chase binocular night vision or fusion, after obtaining a PVS14 and a thermal we would much rather extend our capability with a drone. Firstly, a drone with a daytime camera and, eventually, when we could afford it, we would add a thermal camera to it. Anyone who has been taking notice of the war in Ukraine should have marveled at the employment and development of drone technology. From surveillance and reconnaissance, communications relays and geospatial mapping through to the precision dropping of grenades and kamikaze attacks. All with commercial, off the shelf consumer drones, albeit modified in certain cases. The ability to fly around your environment (while respecting your neighbors, of course) and literally getting a bird's eye view of what is going on is an incredible intelligence gathering tool. Being also able to do so in the dark and use a thermal camera to spot heat the signatures of potential bad guys is more than the icing on the cake: it could make all the difference in the world.

Drones come in lots of shapes, sizes and capabilities, as well as price points. We suggest you start by taking a look at something like the DJI Mavic 3 ($2000) and working both upwards and downwards from there. This is not to say we think you should buy a Mavic 3 or another DJI product: there are quite a few cons to this (geo-fenced restrictions on where it can fly, Chinese firmware that probably reports home to Beijing). But the specification, fly time, load capacity, quality, price and ease of use are a good initial benchmark to compare with other options. Of course, the Nanny State now requires that all the useful sized drones need to be registered with the FAA and there are different categories of license depending on whether you are using it for any commercial purpose or not. Not everyone complies but that is up to the individual. Don't say we didn't tell you.

Now, after having spent thousands on a PVS14 and Hogster 35 (let alone body armor, suppressors and radios) we are not necessarily advocating for any of us to spend several thousand more on a high end commercial drone. The capability enhancements at this level are fantastic. But you may find that something much cheaper fits your needs well. A DJI Mini 3 can be had for about $600 and still gives you a lot of bang for the buck. Only you can decide on the balance between budget, requirements and capabilities. Which is why this is more of a research project to narrow down your choices. Start reading the online forums and dive into a bunch of videos on YouTube. Try to find someone who is already into the hobby or using a drone to take property pictures for a realtor and have them demonstrate the capabilities of their platforms. Their insights and tips will be worthwhile.

One final thought on force multipliers. Having people you love and who love you can and will motivate you to do extraordinary things. That and faith in God are no doubt the biggest of them all. So don't lose focus and worship the technological suggestions we have made. They are only adjuncts to a much stronger foundation.