Rotorcraft
Civilian operators clamor for night-vision goggles
The civil night-vision goggle market is booming for emergency medical service (EMS) and law enforcement applications, but significant regulatory barriers c

The civil night-vision goggle market is booming for emergency medical service (EMS) and law enforcement applications, but significant regulatory barriers could limit new entrants into the market and restrict the export of the most popular NVGs.

While the military remains the most prolific consumer of NVGs–accounting for an estimated 90 percent of all NVG sales–the civil market has posted significant growth over the last five years. Mike Atwood, president of Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) of Boise, Idaho, sees the civil market growing for his company at 10 percent per year. ASU is the exclusive U.S. distributor of the popular ITT 4949 ANVIS-9 NVGs. ASU provides NVG-compatible cockpit STCs and was the first company to train civil EMS pilots.