POTD: Going Night Vision and Thermal – Fielding the ENVG-B & FWS-I

@Mr.T Laughs in Soviet

@Uncle Yar Laughs in FPS gamer. That’s where this is going sooner rather than later.

@Mr.T This and if you have to use the mandible on a helmet pretty well end that.

@Uncle Yar It’s probably going to see limited use.

They really only added that capability because they realized that they were 80% there, as far as achieving the capability that Land Warrior failed to deliver (efficiently) years ago.

Having to constantly toggle out of the FWS-I view in the ENVG/B’s would be super annoying since you don’t want to point your gun at everything you want to see.

Plus they have the Sig LPVO’s coming and *maybe* the NGSW fire controls after that. I have a feeling that the FWS-I’s will get issued more as an item for squad leaders for better command/control vs a general issue item to everyone.

What I’m really interested in the how the ENVG III vs ENVG-B will get issued. Who gets Binos and who’s gonna rock the 30,000 mono’s that the Army has? https://uploads.disquscdn.c... https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

@Kinetics "Who gets Binos and who’s gonna rock the 30,000 mono’s that the Army has?"
Pointmen and navigator run binos for depth-spatial awareness, monos for the rest to save on weight, bulk and $. Honestly surprised the US is still using Monos en masse, actually.

"Having to constantly toggle out of the FWS-I view in the ENVG/B’s would be super annoying since you don’t want to point your gun at everything you want to see"

True. It's either this or COTIs for augmented thermals.

"I have a feeling that the FWS-I’s will get issued more as an item for squad leaders for better command/control vs a general issue item to everyone."

Honestly IMO I think it's more suited for the #1 guy, or maybe the one who assists the #1, clearing the corners and peeking through as much as they can before #1 runs like hell through the threshold... I honestly think the ECOTI with integrated compass and real-time trackers for enemies, friendlies, and neutrals, with waypoint overlays (Augmented Reality style) would be a lot more useful for the squad cmdr. My logic being, "focus on the trees for the #1 and #2, and on the forest for the squad cmdr".

I realized (just recently) both the ENVG units has integrated thermals, and that's good with having one less clip on to worry about, with less batteries to keep track of, you know. It is more convenient and idiot proof, more user friendly, no set-up time needed.

That said, unless the user interface is as capable as the ECOTI, with the augmented reality markers and waypoint assist and all, the capability would actually be inferior to the previous gen setup of PVS-14 Gen 3 tubes with ECOTI clip on and ATAK integration for Augmented Reality aids. If it comes down to that (which would be a massive failing on the part of Big Army), then I bet the SF types will still stick with ECOTIs on their I2 only Panos or Binos, because that added AR is super useful and totally worth the set-up and the more hassling upkeep if you're those sort of people.

Honestly, with the way things are going, I honestly predict that only the most crack of non-SF are ever going to handle the ENVG of any sort. REMFs will be stick with PVS-7, because although you can't aim down passively through red dots with those, who cares if you're a REMF, giving away laser signature for aiming won't matter much for you.