PVS-14: Covert Surveillance Tool

One of the more common questions I get from first time night vision buyers is to break down the pros and cons of single tube units versus duals. Obviously there's a price point at work in there guiding the decision, but I always stress another angle as well: don't undervalue the utility of the PVS-14 in a semi or non-permissive environment. Lemme explain.

Dual tube night vision is great because there's no change in your depth perception under them. This is a huge deal if you've ever stumbled around in the woods at night or driven with them. The PVS-14 can take some getting used to if you're unaccustomed to walking around basically with one eye covered. But in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, so to speak, and that was undoubtedly the case across my last two deployments overseas. In Kirkuk I ran a PVS-7D and I'd rather forget that experience. Obviously dual tubes are what most people seek and for a good reason. 

But with that said dual tubes come with essentially double the weight and, what I think is quite a bit more important, a significantly higher signature. Let's talk about semi-permissive and non-permissive environments and why you'd need a Night Operating Device (NOD) in the first place. The general rule of thumb in the modern era is that night vision is for movement, thermal is for target detection / static observation. So with that said night vision becomes the tool of choice for activities in support of an underground network: moving logistics, surveillance, and close target reconnaissance. Each of these tasks require maintaining a plausible cover for action / status. You'll have to be able to explain away your pocket lint if you're caught, so the lower the profile the better. And that might include driving, sneaking around in back alleys and breaking into dark spaces. Think Watergate Burglars and you get the idea. G. Gordon Liddy would have loved some decent NODs, I'm sure of it. 

In this case the PVS-14 really begins to shine. I can carry it in my pants pocket and conceal the support equipment (a night cap, J-arm and mount) on other parts of my body. If I'm running duals I've got a significantly higher profile. A PVS-14 is small enough to be hidden in a lot of public spaces and go unnoticed - even in a camera bag it doesn't exactly look out of place. Duals on the other hand look exactly like what you'd think NODs look like. Now, these assumptions might not keep you out of trouble, but it is a worthy consideration when you're explaining every potential angle of a cover for status.

There's one other practical aspect of the PVS-14 that many miss and its the most fundamental rule of common sense. Two is one, one is none. If I have two devices now I have another equipped person on my team. By myself, I can only see what I see. But someone has to pull security. The ability to crossload capabilities is critically important; inevitably not everyone has the means to afford night vision in all cases, but it in no way diminishes the reality that having NODs is mission critical.