Army’s new Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars

Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars

The new ENVG-B has both night vision and thermal-sensing capabilities and “stereoscopic binocular depth perception,” providing Soldiers with an illusion of depth on a flat image, officials said.

According to 82nd Airborne Division Soldiers who field-tested the new technology, the new ENVG-B is a “game changer” providing Soldiers with a unique advantage against an adversary,

Soldiers testing the new device had a 100 percent improvement in weapons qualifications using that ENVG-B, along with a 300 percent increase in detection of targets in day and night environments, and a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the time taken to shoot a target, Hodne added.

From 2019 to 2022, the Army is scheduled to field about 10,000 ENVG-B systems.

Currently the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) is being developed to address capability gaps in the dismounted close combat force.

In the past, as the Soldier in the back who’s going to actually be dismounting on the objective you may have a single screen to look at that can maybe toggle between the driver’s view or the commander’s view, or the gunners view, or perhaps you’re looking through periscope blocks or asking the crew themselves what is actually happening around you,” said SFC Joshua Braly, SL CFT. “But overall when you are buttoned up in the back of a platform you have very limited situational awareness to what you’re walking into.”

Beyond the original problem set, IVAS is looking to be applied to an additional capability gap in order to allow the mounted and dismounted Soldier to maintain both C2 and visual situational awareness seamlessly across Army vehicle platforms.