INFRARED NIGHT VISION WEAPON SIGHT

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to evaluate employment of the Polan P-155 infrared night vision weapon sight by Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) in counterinsurgency operations in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). During the evaluation, Vietnamese soldiers were instructed in the use of weapon sights. Following this, use of the sights by selected RVNAF units was observed and analyzed. The evaluation was conducted under actual combat conditions. Although well-trained RVNAF units were capable of using IR weapon sights, most units did not use them enough to justify issue. Reasons given for not using the sights were: (1) RVNAF units did not often operate at night; (2) the sights were too heavy and bulky for the average Vietnamese soldier; (3) RVNAF unit commanders feared loss of the sights to the Viet Cong (VC). No RVNAF unit had electrical facilities for charging batteries. It is recommended that infrared night vision weapon sights not be issued to RVNAF.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 30, 1965
Accession Number
AD0367897

Entities

People

  • Thomas P. Rametta

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Battery Chargers
  • Cloud Cover
  • Combat Operations
  • Counterinsurgency
  • Doctrine
  • Employment
  • Grenade Launchers
  • Image Tubes
  • Light Sources
  • National Security
  • Night Vision
  • Observation
  • Supply Depots
  • Surveillance
  • Terrain
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Library and Information Science/ Studies, Southeast Asia Studies, Bibliography of Vietnam and Lao Studies.
  • Marksmanship and Weaponry.