New runway lights visible only with NVGs

[unhappycamper]

New runway lights visible only with NVGs
By James Hannah - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 5, 2007 7:19:34 EDT

DAYTON, Ohio — As the pilots of a C-130 transport plane and a Huey helicopter were preparing for a night landing on a dirt airstrip, they were able to spot the runway lights from 15 miles away — but only they could see them.

The portable lights were in covert mode, visible only to those wearing night-vision goggles.

The landing exercises at Fort McCoy, Wis., were designed to test the prototype lights developed by researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

“It went beautifully,” said Sharon Dixon, a psychologist at Wright-Patterson who evaluated the effectiveness and safety of the system.

~snip~

The new runway lights were designed to help guide military aircraft in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where quickly established runways may be short, unpaved and in hostile territory.

A handful of researchers spent three years developing the $850,000 system. They are currently shopping the system among the military branches to see who can use it.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_runwaylights_071005/

[soothsayer]

1. So the enemy will be able to crash copters with the simple use of spotlights,

search lights, flash lights, any bright lights?

Haven't we had a whole lot of heli crashes in recent years because of pilots wearing NVGs?