Decommissioned/Civvie Gear

jimi_t

Just wondering, in pure mitty fashion, what kind of surveillance/defense/electronic countermeasure gear you could buy legally within the EU? Say if we were invaded by Chad/Israel whatever tomorrow, what's the best gear you could legally get to kit out a militia compared to that the military used (Radar, Thermal Imaging/Nightvision etc...)? I'm always fascinated by how far technology is come, and its nice to have a benchmark to rank the advances the various militaries are making (say a 20 year technical divide for anything developed with 'Iraq' applications compared to whats in your own home).


By the by, this is my favourite part of the forum - that mall ninja thread was better than lolocaust

minidazzler

jimi_t wrote: »

Just wondering, in pure mitty fashion, what kind of surveillance/defense/electronic countermeasure gear you could buy legally within the EU? Say if we were invaded by Chad/Israel whatever tomorrow, what's the best gear you could legally get to kit out a militia compared to that the military used (Radar, Thermal Imaging/Nightvision etc...)? I'm always fascinated by how far technology is come, and its nice to have a benchmark to rank the advances the various militaries are making (say a 20 year technical divide for anything developed with 'Iraq' applications compared to whats in your own home).


By the by, this is my favourite part of the forum - that mall ninja thread was better than lolocaust

Wash your mouth out with Battery Acid for that!!!!!

I know a guy with NVG's. Thats about as advanced I know of!!!

kowloon

The current gen military stuff and the thermal kit are not available to the public as military kit.
It can all be obtained as products for other uses though.

jimi_t

kowloon wrote: »

The current gen military stuff and the thermal kit are not available to the public as military kit.

Oh yeah, obviously; I was more wondering what the closest civvie equivalents were

It can all be obtained as products for other uses though.

Elaborate

kowloon

jimi_t wrote: »

Elaborate

Thermal imaging gear, for instance, is used for lots of manufacturing work, and some very high end kit at that. The electronics are often the same as the military kit but say in a bright yellow handheld case as opposed to some mounted goggles. Just an example.

Tabnabs

Radar is widely available to the general public, as are night vision binoculars. Does that help?

Tenger

Dyflin wrote: »

Radar is widely available to the general public, as are night vision binoculars. Does that help?

Perhaps a differnt way of asking would be to sat 'How long until the current level of military gear is available to the public?' We have all seen NVGs or thermal camera sights in shops. Are these 1970s era tech or 1980s tech? Simialar question with commercially available personal radio gear.

I can remember being in college in 1994 doing a module on GIS (Geographical Imaging Systems,basically satellite imaging) At that stage the European SPOT system was publicly available and had a resolution of 1 metre,meaning it could make out objects larger than 1 metre. Obviously the military systems of the time had a better resolution. Now we all have access to GoogleEarth or similar.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Generally generation 1 gear is pretty common and not too expensive. This is the old military gear that is long been outdated. Some of it is ok but not great for the likes of hunting. Generation 2 is also available but is pretty expensive, it is better than generation 2. Generation 3 is currently in use, and if my mind serves me right, is strictly military in most countries. I have seen some pieces of generation 3 NVG's for sale, but you are talking 2,500+ euro. Generation 4 goggles are available but quite scarce at the moment. Take a look at this

Generation 4 Scope

countries like Ireland are restricted when it comes to equipment like this. I am not sure of the exact details, sorry.