Can You Shoot Around Corners Without Looking? With the ENVG Goggles You Can

You may not have a pair of the L3Harris ENVG-B night vision goggles in your team room lockers yet, but they could be coming soon. The L3Harris ENVG-B are currently being fielded at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the 82nd Airborne Division. Should the DoD decide that these make the cut, they could be issued Army-wide.

For the past 18 months, L3 Harris and PEO Soldier have conducted 11 events to perfect the goggles.

L3Harris is planning to deliver about 10,000 systems to the Army by the end of the year.

According to its website, the L3Harris ENVG-B arms soldiers with superior abilities to target, engage, and neutralize threats, enhancing mission success and operator safety. “The ENVG-B is a helmet-mounted, dual-waveband goggle with industry-leading [sic], fused white phosphor, and thermal technologies.”

ENVG-B is primary use is as a binocular. Yet, it also offers a monocular option to provide dominant or non-dominant eye relief. A simple rotation of lens into stow position changes monocular to binocular vision. The advanced design includes a low-profile stow position against the helmet. Twin-tube design provides in-field protection from failure or damage.
Soldiers can also attach weapon sight images into their goggles.

This allows soldiers to see around corners without the risk of exposure, and to identify, assess and engage targets with greater accuracy and speed. It provides them with proven clarity even in degraded battlefield conditions.

SFC Brion Baker said that, “The ability to shoot around corners from behind cover without exposing the soldier to any enemy fire is going to be exponential on the battlefield. I will save lives and protect its most valuable assets, its people.”

Soldiers can keep their eyes on the target without having to look down to read maps or check radios for critical information.

For the past 18 months, L3 Harris and PEO Soldier have conducted 11 events to perfect the goggles.

L3Harris is planning to deliver about 10,000 systems to the Army by the end of the year.

Soldiers can keep their eyes on the target without having to look down to read maps or check radios for critical information.

So what this means is that leaders can do map overlays, have their soldiers upload them into their End-User Device (EUD), aka their Samsung phone, and then see the product through their night vision, without ever looking down at their map.

Imagine being able to see a compass, azimuth, waypoint, etc., right there in a heads-up display through your night vision goggles both in daytime and nighttime conditions.

Nearly 20 Maryland Army National Guard soldiers recently tested the ENVG-B to measure the effects of image intensifier tube imbalance for both target identification and depth perception. The tests were conducted at the Army Research Lab – Human Resources and Engineering Directorate facility in Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The ENVG-B enables the Army’s combat forces to observe and maneuver in all weather, through obscurants, during limited visibility, and under all lighting conditions.

Paul Fedele, a physical scientist with the Army Research Laboratory, helped MDARNG Soldiers administer both tests in the dark. The tests established basic operational parameters for the ENVG-B system.

“We’re extremely appreciative of the Maryland National Guard,” said Josh Rubinstein, a senior research psychologist with the DoD’s Data and Analysis Center. “They are helping us test the equipment and providing us with the Soldiers to complete the study. The caliber of effort that I’ve seen with the Maryland National Guard has been exceptional.”

This article was originally published on January 29, 2021.