Russia Can’t Fight Ukraine at Night Because it Can’t Afford Night Vision
And doesn't train its troops for night fighting...
In 1945, US military scientists sent the first-ever American “night vision” devices to soldiers and Marines in the Pacific theater.
Parallel development of night vision systems occurred in Germany, but these devices, like many German technological advances, arrived too late to meaningfully change the outcome of the war.
For American soldiers in the Pacific, these clunky, infrared sniper scopes — also called “snooper-scopes” — were put to good use repelling Japanese assaults at night on Okinawa.
Because only 300 were made available, they often went to the best snipers in a given unit.
By 1954, US Field Manual 100–5, Field Service Regulations, Operations devoted considerable attention to night combat, discussing tactical and technical strengths and weaknesses of night operations, as well as special considerations for attack and defense.
In the post-Vietnam world, the US military has dominated night warfare — my Army unit even adopted the unofficial motto “We own the night.”
When I joined the Army infantry in the late 1990s, the unit I was assigned to in the 101st Airborne Division only performed operations at night. We continued this throughout the late 2000s.
Sleep during the day. Move and fight at night.
We used to have to run obstacle courses while wearing the now-ancient AN/PVS-7 night vision devices (NVDs).
Many soldiers’ ankles have been sacrificed on these obstacle courses since these 90s-era NVDs were monocular, which completely eliminated any sense of depth perception.
They called it the PVS-7 “Cyclops” for a reason.
By the time of the first Gulf War, the “US night vision advantage” had been called by some the greatest mismatch in military history — the Iraqi army had none, and coalition forces were able to seek and destroy Iraqi Republican guard forces at will.
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman told Congress during a 1991 hearing, “It was the ability to attack at night, when all of the rest of the world’s defenses are at 10 percent of what they are in the daytime, that gave us this huge immediate impact and edge.”
Today, the technology gap between the US and its rivals is narrowing, but a nation must still be able to afford to either produce or buy its night vision.
In Ukraine, the US has supplied its ally with tens of thousands of modern NVD scopes and goggles to see in the dark, including thermal imagers to detect heat and drones with both functions.
Before the war, Russia was thought to have a somewhat modern level of night vision capability for its infantry.
In 2020, the Russian MOD boasted of the Russian military kit dubbed ‘ратник’ or Ratnik (an old Russian word for “warrior”) which integrates over 60 elements: weapons, sights, individual protection gear, sets of autonomous sources of heat, communications devices, night vision, and an active hearing protection systems.
Presumably, Russian defense contractor ‘Central Research Institute of Precision Machine-Building’ (part of the state tech corporation Rostec) delivered almost 300,000 Ratnik combat systems to Russian troops between 2013 and 2020.
However, it's unclear if these kits ever made it to the ground forces that are now fighting in Ukraine.
Video and images coming out of Ukraine show Russian soldiers who are poorly equipped and completely lacking even a single Ratnik component, including night vision.
In reality, the majority of the 300,000 Ratnik kits, including their night vision components, likely made their way to the black market well before the war in Ukraine started.
Besides, the very fact that Russia produced 300,000 Ratnik kits for rank-and-file soldiers is contradictory in itself. After all, Ratnik was developed to increase the survivability of the troops — but survivability is the last thing Russian commanders care about in Ukraine. This is evident by the tactics employed around Bakhmut and Vuhledar.
I’ve written in the past about how Russian contract soldiers have sent conscripts in probing attacks to identify Ukrainian emplacements, and then follow up with better-equipped troops once these locations have been identified - at the cost of the conscripts’ lives.
With tactics like those, why would you outfit any soldier with Ratnik?
This night vision difference between Ukrainian forces and Russian forces might be the new greatest mismatch in military history.
Because of widespread corruption within the Russian armed forces, most Russian units simply cannot operate at night in Ukraine.
It’s exceedingly likely that Russia has more night vision capabilities on its consumer drones than it actually has for its regular troops.
I say “most” because I can envision the kit actually making its way to the more elite Russian units (Spetsnaz and Airborne), who likely hoard the higher-end equipment, further causing a shortfall for the regular army.
By now, in our third year of war, Putin probably realizes the extent of his military corruption problem. But even if he wanted to buy modern night vision, this technology is exceedingly expensive.
Even basic night vision can start in the tens of thousands of US dollars. Russia simply can’t afford it unless they’re buying Chinese knockoffs.
And it seems unlikely that Putin would prioritize night vision in any case. He seems more intent on spending his dwindling energy rubles on artillery ammo, Iranian-made suicide drones, and Iranian ballistic missiles.
What’s more, British intelligence has said that there is thought to be a “cultural element” to Russia’s night-fighting problem because Russian military training “has rarely emphasized night exercises.”
Russian military training typically happens in the daytime “to impress senior visiting officers,” according to the UK’s Ministry of Defense.
On the flip side, Ukraine is taking full advantage of its ability to operate at night.
Russian sources have reported that NVDs are boosting Kyiv’s ability to operate in the dark.
They also saw an increase in Ukrainian forces launching nighttime raids during the early days of the Kharkiv counter-offensive and in Kursk.
George Barros, a geospatial intelligence team lead and Russia analyst with the Institute for the Study of War told Insider that “There’s been combat footage and reports about Ukrainian night raids that have been fairly successful because of these [night vision] capabilities.”
Still, the persistent fog of war prevents us from knowing the full extent to which Russia is unable to defend against Ukrainian night attacks.
If Russia is restricted to daytime fighting, they will be unable to bring in air support to help hold their defensive line and it also allows Ukraine to move undetected under cover of darkness.
Ukraine is exceptionally good at exploiting tactical advantages when they occur on the battlefield, while Russia is exceptionally slow at adapting to changing battlefield conditions.
Every, and I mean every Western system that has made its way to Ukraine, the Ukrainians have put to good use.
It’s an astonishing example of the old proverb from the year 1576 “Waste not, want not.” In other words, “willful waste makes woeful want” and the Ukrainians put to use every technological advantage that the West sends.
According to the US military veteran blog Task & Purpose, in 2014 researchers at the University of Michigan developed a light sensor so small it could be squeezed into a contact lens, allowing, at least in theory, for the creation of night-vision contacts.
No doubt, Ukraine would make good use of these as well.
As this unlawful invasion drags on, it’s becoming more evident that Russia is fighting a 20th Century war, while Ukraine is leveraging some of the most modern warfighting tools available.
This is partially why Ukraine has been able to even the odds against a much larger army.
When historians look back on this war from the far future, they’ll say Ukraine won for many reasons — they’re fighting for their homes, their families, and for freedom — but they will also say Ukraine won because “they own the night.”
Слава Україні!
Keep them coming, Wes. Truly enjoy every post of yours
The Russian monocular thingy looks like a Land Warrior knockoff tbh. And if we couldn't easily field that they definitely couldn't either.