Infantry: January 14, 2003

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It's increasingly popular to put low magnification telescopes on assault rifles. A lot of this has to do with advances in scope technology. It's no longer just a telescope with cross hairs. The new sights are smaller, lighter and, if you can afford it, equipped with a lot of extra features (night vision, laser rangefinder, Etc.) Most have magnification of 1.5x to 6x. But these scopes are only effective if used with well trained troops. Tests with conscripts and other short term soldiers found that too much magnification in the scope just slows the soldier down, as he works at getting one excellent shot off in the time that he could have fired several perfectly adequate ones. But with the increasing use of troops in peacekeeping missions, these scopes are considered a good investment, as they make it more likely that an innocent civilian will not get shot. 

 

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