The U.S. Army has announced a more advanced binocular night-vision goggle will soon be coming to the Army’s ranks.
For the past nine months, the service has been testing the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular, or ENVG-B, and taking input from Soldiers. Plans call for fielding the device in October to an armored brigade combat team that will deploy to South Korea, said Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, Army G-8.
Pasquarette and other leaders testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday at an Army modernization hearing.
The ENVG-B features a dual-tube structure and uses thermal imaging, he said. It will connect to a Soldier’s weapon using the Family of Weapon Sights-Individual and Rapid Target Acquisition Capability. The combined technology will allow Soldiers to detect targets through smoke and spot enemies behind light obscurants.
“It is definitely a winner,” said Lt. Gen. James Richardson, deputy commander of Army Futures Command. “I have used the goggle. I have shot [with] the goggle. It is better than anything I’ve experienced in my Army career.”
The goggles have been tested with Army Rangers and infantry Soldiers and proven successful. In addition to advancing to a binocular system rather than monocular, Soldiers will no longer see the green tint of the current night vision goggles, which uses green phosphorous tubes. The ENVG-B uses white phosphorous tubes. The binocular system also provides more depth perception than the traditional monocular sight.
“It’s been so successful with our Rangers and our infantry, that they’ve been using this night vision goggle in the daytime on the ranges,” Richardson said. “And they’ve gone from marksman to expert. It was more than we thought it was going to be from a night perspective.”