War causing shortage of night-vision goggles

[unhappycamper]

The wait time for night-vision goggles in the U.S. is six-to-eight months.


War causing shortage of night-vision goggles
By Ryan J. Foley - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 4, 2008 17:25:19 EDT

MADISON, Wis. — The war in Iraq is creating a major — and perhaps deadly — shortage of night-vision goggles for civilian pilots who fly medical helicopters in the U.S.

The National Transportation Safety Board has encouraged the use of such equipment since 2006 to reduce the risk of deadly nighttime crashes during emergency medical flights. But air ambulance services that fly sick or injured people to the hospital have been put on waiting lists of a year or more by makers of night-vision gear because the U.S. military has contracts that give it priority.

“The war in Iraq escalated, and the goggles weren’t available,” said Gary Sizemore, president of the National EMS Pilots Association and a pilot in Perry, Fla. “We were put on a waiting list.”

Sizemore estimated about 25 percent of the 800 or so emergency medical helicopters in the U.S. have the technology. He said he would like such gear on his own helicopter so he could better navigate the dark pine forest he routinely flies over in northern Florida.

Night-vision goggles take the tiny amount of light from the stars or the moon and amplify hundreds of times, enabling the pilot to see in the dark and avoid flying into mountains, wires or other obstructions. The NTSB said the technology could have prevented 13 of 55 crashes of medical helicopters it analyzed in the 2006 report.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_goggles_060408/



uhc comment: I seem to recall that police departments across the country were having problems getting bullets about a year ago due to the war occupation.

[lynnertic]

1. and again this year PD's are foregoing things like target practice

to conserve ammo.