Enhancing Your Existing nV EquipmEnt Dave Douglas Areal“then-and-now”reminder.Thatbig,megapoundnightvisionunitwasallthatwasavailable justafewshortyearsago.Today,unitsthesize ofthesmalleronedeliverperformanceonly dreamedofbefore,atlowercostandmoreefficient operatinglevels,offeringruggedconstructionable tosurviveanythingtossedatthem. upgraDes anD aDD-ons t 34 Theseidentifiers standrightoutwhen illuminatedwithIRlight. Undernormallightthey arejustsubduedpatches. he military is drawing down, government development contracts are being scaled back and the almost unlimited funding for R&D projects is drying up. Even though war in and of itself is abhorrent, it does bring about innovative thinking and the development of things useful in peacetime. World War II gave us the jet engine, the Civil War gave us submarines and Viet Nam gave us paramedics. Maybe the price paid was too high, but they’re here now, so let’s not let them go to waste. Iraq and Afghanistan have provided leaps in night vision technology, as has every war since WWII. But, now much of those NV innovations are concen- 7 trated on enhancing existing devices, the most ubiquitous of which is the AN/ PVS-14. It’s also the most law enforcement-friendly device for its relatively low cost, grant programs, diminutive size and its flexibility and adaptability. It’s truly astounding how many products are now available to law WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • FEBRUARY2014
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