Light Weight Sights For All Ranges
Fighting in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan has driven weight of weapons and equipment down. Unfortunately, this isn’t as much to get the burden imposed on the soldier down, but rather to ensure that more consumables can be carried to extend the time between resupply. Sighting equipment was an obvious candidate for weight reduction strategies. Some of these sights were not even designed with the military in mind, but now as never before the West’s militaries are adopting civilian technology, taking advantage of reduced costs and much faster development cycles.
The first optical sight to be issued universally by a US armed service was the M68 CCO – the Swedish Aimpoint CompM2. The success of the CompM2 lead to the adoption of its more advanced stablemate the CompM4 which was likewise designated M68. The CompM4s had a much greater battery life getting 80,000 hours from a single AA alkaline battery and featured a mount which kept the sight aligned vertically and a more rugged adjustment knob. It still weighed in at 11.8 ounces though. Aimpoint knew there was a market for a much smaller red dot sight and brought out the Micro range a few years ago. This was never intended for military use, but the night vision capable Aimpoint Micro T-1 soon found its way into use with US forces. The T-1 is arguably less strong than the Comps but it only weighs 3.7 ounces with a thumbscrew operated Picatinny mount. The price paid for this is the use of a 3.8 MoA dot, a less abundant CR2032 battery and a mere(!) 50,000 hour battery life. The T-1 is commonly issued with the Aimpoint 3XMag 3X detachable magnifier to give a very versatile and lightweight package which exploits the entire engagement envelope of the M4 carbine and M16A4 rifle. The problem with this set-up is the lack of any ability to compensate for range.
Another solution favoured by the US Army is to take its M150 Rifle Combat Optic – itself a variant of the Marines’ AN/PVQ-31 series RCO, a variant of the Trijicon TA31 ACOG, and piggyback an L3 Insight Miniature Reflex Sight or MRS on the back. The MRS will be issued to users of longer ranged weapons such as snipers and designated marksmen as a back-up for short range engagements. Some earlier ACOGs with piggy backed peep or red dot sights are still in service, many of them privately purchased TA01NSNs and TA01NSN-RMRs. The M150 and MRS pairing caters for the full engagement envelope with range compensation facilitated by a ladder reticle.
L3 Eotech have not been sitting idle and have designed their own reduced weight solution. The EXPS3-2 holographic sight uses a CR123 sideways mounted battery and comes in at 11.2 ounces. It gives a genuinely parallax free aiming reticle projected into infinity which can be seen through any portion of the aiming window, even if it is partially obscured or shattered. There is now a variant with a four dot reticle to cater for ranges out to 600 meters and the sights are now available in a tan finish. The Eotechs are sometimes regarded as less rugged than the Aimpoints or Trijicons and have shallower depth ratings, but they have found favour with US SOCOM, USAF para rescue and various other units such as the 10th Mountain and 3rd Infantry Divisions and the 1st Stryker Brigade. Thousands have been privately purchased and turn up in pictures and video from Afghanistan on a daily basis. The Eotech G23.FTS magnifier flips to the side and converts the EXPS from short to medium/long range operation in an instant. It too is available in tan to suit the current theatres of operations.
SOCOM II: US Navy Seals Part 1 of 26 ~for BigMackWillyPack88
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