Surveillance, Targeting and Night Observation […

I had someone ask me in the last Recce Course where I thought the future of weapons optics was headed. My answer was pretty direct – STANO integration in a more streamlined sense, possibly replacing daytime optics in a direct action role. Not completely, mind you, at least in the near term. But definitely becoming more commonplace from a niche role that most consider it even today.

That idea, of course, is nothing new. It goes back to at least WWII with the first generation night scopes. The Germans and US experimented with night vision devices being fielded on the first generation of assault weapons, the STG-44 and M3 Carbine, respectively. The latter saw extensive use in the Okinawa campaign in the late stages of the war, claiming 30% of the Japanese casualties.

Fast forward to Vietnam, great strides had been made not just in the advancement of the technology but its integration into the small unit. Adelbert Waldron III, the deadliest sniper of the Vietnam War, would most often carry a suppressed XM21 (an accurized M14) with an AN/PVS-2 night vision sniper scope. Towards the end of the war special operations units would utilize the PVS-2 on the M16 and, in some limited cases, Colt Carbines for happy hunting at night.

We’ve certainly come a long way since then in every way. One of the fundamental questions among tacticians has been the best implementation of night vision equipment, and by proxy, thermal into the mix. Night Vision devices today are thought of primarily as head mounted units for greater mobility at night. But I personally used the PVS-30 in the designated marksman’s role. Today that has evolved and dominated by thermal, leaving the question among many what they should pick up first – night vision or thermal devices. The more important question there is how you personally plan on employing it. My answer remains the same: night vision is for mobility, thermal is for target acquisition.

In the present day thermal optics have made a complete night-and-day change from where they were even a decade ago. The advancement of heat sensor and processor technology took thermal imaging from simply detecting heat signatures in units like the PAS-13 to now revolutionizing how we conceptualize weapons integration itself. The reality is that night vision is proliferated on both sides of the battlefield, and common sense suggests that the old methods of targeting under NODs with IR lasers (active aiming) may not be best in all cases. Personally I don’t think that a fighting weapon should be without an IR laser – you have to have a way to aim on the move under NODs – but in a static position, going with a weapons mounted thermal is undoubtedly the King.

So – where do I think its headed? In a nutshell we’ll see a larger number of devices being proliferated and its my opinion that if you’re not addressing the issue you’re behind the power curve. Compact thermal scopes are definitely an option some go, and for overall weight savings that’s not necessarily wrong thinking. But having a primary optic that’s not wholly dependent on batteries is always what I’ll grab and go. The thermal is an enabler, not my primary, but that’s just me. There’s few setups better than a first focal plane scope and a clip on thermal to give the best of all worlds any time of the day.

The evolution of it all has been as fascinating to watch as it has been to be a participant in it. The tech is here to stay, whether we like that or not, and we have to make strides to address that reality. And, as always, well regulated means well trained and well equipped.

A Look At The Infitac IOL25 Thermal: ACOG Sized…

Hands on with the Infitac IOL25. pic.twitter.com/7mfjw5nRpA— NC Scout (@Brushbeater) April 8, 2026

AR-152 PRO: The Hilux of Handheld Radio

The AR-152 is without a doubt one of the most versatile radios you can own. Its large, rugged size and nearly infinite battery life definitely set it apart from other Baofeng radios on the market, quickly becoming the radio I go to most often as a carry along in the truck, tractor, or any other time I’m hitting the woods. The radio is simple, rugged, and dependable for pretty much everything I do. And configuring it into a data terminal is really straightforward as well. While its not perfect, I consider the AR-152 to be about as close to a Toyota Hilux of radio as you can get.

A new version hit the scene earlier this year and I’m generally pretty skeptical of new things…especially when the old one performs so well. I definitely fall into the ‘if ain’t broke’ crowd and for a good reason. Better the devil you know, so to speak. But besides, how good could improvements be? There’s certainly some things I’d like to see in that form factor and DMR inclusion is certainly one of them. Then again, that’d add a layer of complexity that many don’t necessarily need for all things. Again, having a simple radio that most can pick up and get running in a hurry with minimal instruction is a very, very big deal. The aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the ensuing relief effort was proof positive of that. The 152 definitely was put to good use by many in the Black Mountain area. So that brings us back to the above – how do you make a Hilux better? Can you?

Enter the AR-152 PRO. It shares the same form factor with the original 152 – same housing, button layout, Kenwood plug, 10w power output, power plug, everything – with some very useful additions. The standout upgrades are an expanded frequency coverage range, bluetooth programability and GPS.

The original 152 featured a frequency coverage range of 136-174mHz and 400-520mHz, with FM broadcast band also being built it. Pretty standard for what you get with every Baofeng since the original UV-5R. This model features the 220-250mHz range on transmit and has continuous coverage from 136 all the way through 520 as well as featuring an air band receiver (108-136mHz in AM). In my tests its all perfectly functional and the ability to set up frequency ranges for scanning is extremely useful.

The GPS receiver is an interesting feature. It gives an accurate display in latitude and longitude when enabled and can also transmit those coordinates to another radio. The GPS has a software kill switch and can utilize either GPS or BeiDu (or both). This is an incredibly valuable feature for Search and Rescue teams especially considering its inexpense as well as simplicity of operation. Just hold down the EXIT button and you’ve got a lat/long to your position, hit the PTT and send it.

Now for the criticisms: one big and one very minor. They’ve incorporated an LED screen replacing the older dot matrix LCD. I liked the LCD quite a bit – you could easily read it anytime and when you cut the backlighting off it was easily read under night vision. That said this one is very easy to read, stays dim, and can be completely shut off once you lock the keypad if light discipline is required. But, they went for eye candy over function. There’s no feature of the LED screen that couldn’t have been better executed with a backlit LCD. Its not a deal killer, mind you, but just something to note. As I stated before, I would have loved to see this unit include a DMR module. While that would have added a significantly higher level of complexity in operation, the software defined radio at the heart of all Baofengs could certainly support it as we’ve found with the DM32. A DMR in this housing could be a real killer.

The radio retains its best qualities overall and builds on that with some new ones I think can be very useful. Its well worth $68 just for the GPS and overall simplicity of execution. And while I still might be inclined to run my older 152 when I need just a bare bones radio, I don’t have any reservations about this newer one in most applications over the old standby.

Get yours here. -NCS

All Circuits Are Busy…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve seen the cryptic posts being put out by the White House’s official social media channels. Its created quite a stir for obvious reasons. The jarring distorted effects coupled with an imminent escalation of the Iran War is a bit…concerning. The conspiracy theorists are running wild, in no small part the true believers in the ‘Q’ nonsense. But the reality is these are in fact ominous times and yes, there’s a high chance the war will come home in more ways that one. That includes a disruption to conventional communications.

SWEAT-MC, CARVER and You

The modern reality of American life is that we’re tethered to our phones non-stop. We can’t seem to break free of the mentality that we need a phone to do even basic tasks and this thinking has permeated even the tactical space among thinkers who definitely should know better. Countless times I’ve been asked mind-blowingly stupid things like “without my phone, how will I be able to land navigate?” and “I need this for team awareness!” during the Scout and Recce Courses. No, no you don’t. If you lack the basic awareness to know where the hell you are on a paper map in a relatively small space (let’s say one or two grid squares) then you have no business doing all the things. Emissions control (EMCON) aside, its just dumb. But I digress, one day the magic hand box might not work.

And that day might be sooner than you think. We never addressed the fact that bad people crossed our borders unabated and are still roaming among us. Recognizing that fact we have to also assume, if we assume anything, that they have at least some level of unconventional warfare training. A lot of noise has been made about so-called Iranian sleeper cells in the US, but the reality is that we face underground actors from a lot more places than just Iran, all with an axe to grind with the American people.

Two acronyms we use when planning unconventional warfare activities are SWEAT-MC and CARVER. SWEAT-MC [Sewer, Water, Electricity, Academics, Transportation, Medical, and Communications] is an infrastructure assessment of a location. I used to refer to this as the seven pillars of civilization. Remove one, watch stability crumble. On my second deployment to Iraq we worked with Civil Affairs and the State Department to address this concept, for all the good it did in the end. CARVER stands for Criticality, Accessibility, Recognizability, Vulnerability, Effect, and Recouperability. We use this with a matrix grid to score potential SWEAT-MC targets. Violence doesn’t occur in a vacuum, there has to be an objective whether the target realizes it or not.

Cellular Fragility

Back when Boko Haram was getting cranked up in Nigeria they were on my radar before they became famous. While doing a rotation at one of the schools for ground intelligence operations we were tasked with continental briefings every morning. Africa was my assigned area and the Nigerian state media was disproportionately reporting on cell phone towers being attacked in the northern regions. Boko Haram largely didn’t claim responsibility initially, drawing in security forces to make the repairs as a way to sap the resources of the Lagos government. That was an action indicator – while Boko Haram had been a thing since the early 2000s, they were ready to graduate to the next phase of regional destabilization. Unfortunately I wasn’t wrong, they began attacking Churches, culminating in the infamous Christian girls’ school kidnapping.

Could bad actors pull something like that off in the US? Well, we do a pretty bang up job of that on a daily basis, but joking aside the infrastructure that most likely brings you this blog is pretty fragile and regularly goes down. The general public places a heavy emphasis on cyber attacks (because the media thinks they sound scary) but the reality is the weak point is and always will be the hardware itself. As we jump higher and higher in frequency (heading toward 6GHz, aka 6G) the frequency range limits itself to extreme line of sight. Its a difficult problem to solve, especially providing service in rural areas.

What Concerns Me Most

Going back to my core cultural criticism above, bad thinking and the demand for ever higher bandwidth permeates emergency communications too. This has led to many areas forgoing conventional radio infrastructure altogether in lieu of cellular-based means usually in the 4G legacy network. An interruption in this system would disrupt the T, M, and C of SWEAT-MC and certainly score high in the Criticality scale. I’d love to be able to say we have redundancy everywhere but the chasing of buzzwords for dollars let that ship sail sometime back. My big fear is that we solved ourselves right into a problem.

Worse yet is the fact you probably won’t know about a physical attack once its underway. Few outside of the network control system will. All you (and most others) will really know is that you don’t have cell service. And as we found out recently in Nepal, that might just be enough to get the kids motivated in the wrong direction.

Parallel Infrastructure

So what do you do? The best thing you can do is be as ready as you can. You don’t have all the answers and you’re definitely not the main character in this movie. The reality is you have a duty to keep your wits about you and be an asset when called upon. A big part of that is finding ways to establish parallel infrastructure. That starts with reducing your overall reliance on phones and that’s a mindset issue.

The second step is recognizing that communications as an operating concept falls into one of the three categories I identified in the Guerrilla’s Guide to the Baofeng Radio [Sustainment / Infrastructure, Tactical, Clandestine / Strategic]. You need to recognize the distinctions between each of these roles, with a layered communications plan addressing each of those areas as the mission requires. It should go without saying you need to be realistic about your goals as well. Bullshitters try to sell you on buzzwords like ‘range’. Professionals talk about creating a network. For sustainment communications I’m a strong proponent of simplicity above all first and foremost. That’d be an analog radio with a big ol’ battery. You guessed it, the AR-152.

The second layer of that plan is internet connectivity. I don’t envision a time where we’ll be totally absent the internet. Outages, sure. But a total internet failure? Not so much. That infrastructure is mutually exclusive from cellular networks, by the way, despite most people conceptualizing them as being one in the same. They’re not. My personal use is, without a doubt, Starlink. Living where I do there’s limited connectivity access as is, and Starlink just a few years ago became a revolutionary tool for simply providing usable internet in extremely rural and remote locations. But its proving moment was the ubiquity during the Hurricane Helene relief effort. There were two communications tools that became the heroes and that was the Baofeng radio and Starlink.

Can you go more sophisticated? Sure. Just know with increasing layers of complexity, no matter how cool it might look for a photo op, the more points of failure its going to have. And if the operators can’t troubleshoot the basic functions on the fly, you’re setting yourself up for problems. 90% of communications problems are user error, by the way.

So whatever they’ve got cooked up in America’s future is anyone’s guess but the storm clouds are certainly gathering. Keep a level head, gain some knowledge in the process, and practice what you preach. It’ll matter, I promise. Be the Asset. -NCS