See for miles: Testing Air Corps’ €13,000 night-vision goggles

At first it is difficult to understand why the Air Corps’ latest night-vision goggles cost €13,000 apiece.

The small plastic devices, which are powered by four AA batteries, initially do not seem terribly impressive. They might not look out of place in the middle isle of Lidl.

But the price tag became more understandable when their capabilities are explained. Comdt Jay O’Reilly describes being seconded to fly one of the Garda helicopters when he was tasked with carrying out a night-time search for a missing man after his family reported their concerns about his safety and mental wellbeing.

“I won’t go into too many specifics but we spotted him from the air from about eight miles away. He was flicking a lighter and we picked it up on the night-vision,” O’Reilly says in the pilots’ briefing in Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin. “The mission ended with a positive result.”

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In fact, he says, the night-vision technology obtained by the Air Corps three years ago is the best in the world "aside from the super-secret stuff the Americans might have".

It comes from a US company and its exportation is highly restricted, meaning every year the FBI conducts an audit of Air Corps stocks to make sure no devices are missing.

O'Reilly and his team recently brought The Irish Times on a night flight from Casement Aerodrome over Wicklow and Kildare to show off the technology.

Reconnaissance

The mission is to conduct reconnaissance on a route to be used by a sniper team hiding in the woods down below. The soldiers, who are completing the final phase of the sniper instructors’ course, have been out for four days straight.

After going through a long safety checklist, the Augusta Westland 139 helicopter – the 15-seater workhorse of the Air Corps – takes off. It flies over the Dublin mountains before plunging down rapidly to get a better view of the route along Military Road.

At soon as the chopper is above them, the night vision goggles are flicked down and the pitch blackness is illuminated to the extent that individual road signs are readable. The forest below is visible as if it was daylight, except for an eerie green tinge.

Flying this low over the mountains at night would be impossible without the goggles. Even with them, it can be challenging. Their use requires six weeks’ intensive training and pilots have to be able to quickly flick back and forth between the night vision and standard vision when checking their instruments.

They have become an invaluable tool. Anything aircrews can do in daylight can now also be done at night-time. This includes searching for missing persons (mobile phones are easily picked up on the goggles from miles away, says O’Reilly), medical missions and Army Ranger Wing insertion.

Fight fires

The Air Corps can also fight fires from the air at night using massive buckets of water drawn from nearby lakes, although it has yet to be tasked with this. Firefighting gorse fires after dark has its advantages, Capt Kevin Fitzgerald explains.

“The fires are usually less intense at night and you can actually use the night-vision to see it burning in the undergrowth which you wouldn’t see in daylight.”

Should it be granted a role as part of the estimated €1 billion search and rescue State contract that is currently out to tender, the Air Corps will also be capable of conducting maritime search and rescue missions using night vision, something the current private search and rescue providers cannot do.*

Air Corps pilots are the only people capable of flying using night-vision in the State but work is ongoing to share this expertise into the private sector, Fitzgerald says.

After checking out the spot where the tired and dirty sniper team is to be extracted the next morning, the helicopter conducts some low-level training manoeuvres over Blessington Lakes before returning to base.

Outside it is pitch black, until the goggles are flicked down over the eyes and the light from televisions in livingrooms below comes into view.

*Article amended at 3pm on May 24th, 2021.