Tactical eyewear and goggles are used by military forces and first responders for a number of different applications. They are commonly issued to personnel as a form of eye protection.
Some military goggles may be able to fit over glasses, and others may have prescription lenses built in for vision correction. Lenses may be swappable to enable the goggles to be used by different operators or for different purposes.
Ballistic & Tactical Goggles
Ballistic eyewear is used to protect against hazards such as shrapnel, fragments of projectiles, ejected ammunition casings, and other airborne debris. Tactical goggles used for this purpose are typically rated against various levels of impact protection.
Tactical goggles may also be designed to protect against other hazards, including ultraviolet radiation, glare, laser radiation, sand, wind, and extremes of weather. They may also be issued in cases of chemical or biological warfare, and may need to be able to be disinfected.
Smart Goggles
Protective eyewear may be designed with advanced electronic features. These include heating elements and fans to stop the lenses from fogging or icing up. Lenses are also available that can change from regular to sunglasses mode. This transition may be made manually with the push of a button, or automatically according to levels of light.
Military thermal goggles may include built-in night vision and thermal imaging technology for operations at night and other missions that require enhanced vision capabilities such as search and rescue and target acquisition.
Some goggles may utilize smart technology and augmented reality (AR) to overlay additional information to the operator. This may include holographic 3D maps of terrain as well as information on allied and enemy positions and other tactical data.
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