London, Sep 9(ANI): After reports of British soldiers facing weapons’ shortage in the Afghanistan frontier, a range of new thermal weapons’ sights has been launched to enable soldiers to dominate the battlefield in Afghanistan.
According to reports, the British Ministry of Defence will buy almost 11,000 new sights for 150 million pounds, allowing the Army to equip 95 infantry companies of more than 100 men.
As part of the Ministry of Defence’s Future Integrated Soldier Technology (Fist) programme troops have been issued with a small glass prism-like sight, which project a red laser dot. It would help a soldier to quickly align the red dot on an enemy who is very close and hit him with guaranteed accuracy.
“This means the infantryman can pick up the enemy coming in. At night the enemy’s field craft has to be pretty adept because he has to remain in dead ground all the way up to your position and that is hard yards. This will allow us to dominate the night,” The Telegraph quoted Col Bill Pointing, a former battalion commander in charge of the project, as saying.
“This will allow the infantry to operate quicker, better, at longer range, at night and in difficult weather conditions,” he added.
It will provide improved protection, day and night surveillance and target acquisition, and assistance with navigation, command and control and battle preparation.
The new thermal weapons’ sights would also allow soldiers to conduct surveillance and engage targets in all weather and light levels, including zero light where normal night sights would be rendered ineffective.
“There is a considerable improvement in terms of us infantry engaging the Taliban at very close quarters in the villages of Afghanistan, especially at night time. It will help us to put very effective fire into them,” said Cpl Ciaran Hanna of the Irish Guards. (ANI)