The Role of Night Vision Equipment in Military Incidents and Accidents

Night vision devices provide enormous benefits. They enable personnel to carry out operations under conditions that would not otherwise be possible. However, these benefits carry considerable risks. For instance, individuals often become over confident about their ability to use image intensification and infrared devices. In consequence, the use of night vision equipment is an increasingly common factor in military incidents and accidents. For instance, the US Army recently found that there were 7.7 serious incidents per 100,000 hours of daylight flight in their helicopter fleet. The rate rose to 13.9 per 100,000 hours for night flight. Of those, the rate for unaided night operations was 9.3 while 15.8 incidents occurred per 100,000 hours for night operations involving vision enhancement systems. This paper uses an analysis of incident and accident data to identify requirements for the successful deployment of night vision equipment. It is argued that these applications must be integrated more closely with existing navigational systems. Two further factors are required if night vision equipment is to be successfully integrated into many operational environments: adequate risk assessment and team-based training.