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The Taliban Have Gone High-Tech. That Poses a Dilemma for the U.S.
Once described as an ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking security forces across Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that United States military officials said were either stolen from Afghan and international troops or bought on the black market.
The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on forces under the cover of darkness as they track the whirling blades of coalition helicopters, the infrared lasers on American rifles, or even the bedtime movements of local police officers.
With this new battlefield visibility, the Taliban more than doubled nighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to one United States military official who described internal Pentagon data on the condition of anonymity. The number of Afghans who were wounded or killed during nighttime attacks during that period nearly tripled.
That has forced American commanders to rethink the limited access they give Afghan security forces to the night-vision devices. Commanders now worry that denying the expensive equipment to those forces puts them at a technological disadvantage, with potentially lethal consequences.
See also: Taliban ramps up attacks to send message that no one is safe
(Score: 4, Informative) by Alphatool on Monday April 02 2018, @12:54PM (1 child)
Night vision gear doesn't need to be stolen or bought on the black market, you can just get it on Amazon [amazon.com] or eBay [ebay.com]. You can even buy direct from the manufacturer [atncorp.com] if you want. Sure, there are export controls if you want to get it out of the US - but if the you're feeling particularly law abiding you can just buy it in a different country [nightvisionstore.co.uk] to start with.
And if anyone thinks that the stuff you can buy is some sort of crappy knock off, the goggles I linked to are identical to US army standard issue gear. Night vision is something that became commonly available years ago, and complaining about it is like complaining about access to binoculars or satellite navigation.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 02 2018, @03:05PM
The really interesting part of the story is that in 40 years you can buy COTS the same stuff that secret squirrels are using today. So if the TLAs and cool guy battalions are using something nifty today that almost no one knows about (drone swarms, whatever) I'll be able to buy it off amazon in 2060.
Its just a PVS7, usable but old. I guess the gun equivalent would be be getting a M-60, yes its hopelessly obsolete but it does work at its task.