Night Vision: Its No Longer A Suggestion

Its popping off again in northern Afghanistan. The National Resistance Front (NRF) and Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) launched a joint offensive in the northernmost provinces, backed at least in part by Pakistani ISI. Its a rekindling of the old Northern Alliance and its good to see. Afghanistan is anything but a cohesive country and the Taliban's locus of control is anything but permanent. But this ain't about that - this is about the evolution of equipment. 

One of the photos coming out yesterday shows AFF fighters, mostly ANSF troops who migrated north to some of the most remote terrain on earth to launch resistance operations for the past 5 years. Equipment on both sides is always a mixed bag and usually small arms boils down to whatever the warlord can source ammo to support. This was a problem we ran into with the Afghan Border Police back in 2010. Hard to believe, I know, but one of the chief lieutenants of General Abdul Razzaq was caught selling pallets of 7.62x39 to Taliban-linked elements just over the border in Pakistan. Guess he was hedging his bets. He lost and was dealt with harshly. To live and die in Afghanistan, or something.  

Anyhow, small arms are one thing and while we all love to talk guns, as I've written for over a decade now, it all boils down to that question of support. Enablers drive the fight. Don't believe me? In the two day battle spanning 26-27 SEP 2026, the AFF claims 37 Taliban killed in a rather impressive counter-offensive near Kunar Province. In every estimate aside from the Taliban the battle was incredibly lopsided. I'd argue part of this owes to the Taliban's overblown tactical prowess, but a big part comes from being properly equipped to fight when the lights are out. Traditionally Afghans are dark-averse, preferring to launch attacks just after the morning prayer - its a cultural thing, and one that changed in 20 years of American/ISAF operations. Considering the NRF & AFF militias are comprised mostly of ANSF Vets its no shock we see them taking the night advantage even if equipped with hand-me-down PVS-7Ds. 

Its very old news now but obviously the Taliban got their hands on a large quantity of night vision and thermal equipment as well when the Republic of Afghanistan fell back in 2021. So why then are they performing so poorly? Having equipment is one thing, implementation is quite another, and successful tactical planning are yet another. And this is ignoring just how brutal a fighting terrain Afghanistan truly is. If you've never experienced it, you cannot appreciate just how hard those mountains can be to operate. Terrain always gets a say, sometimes the final say. Any advantage you can scrape up, you do. Winning in war requires you to be the most ruthless bastard imaginable. 

It might sound completely insane to anyone with operational experience in the past three decades, but there really are people out there who claim you 'don't need' any sort of STANO equipment for movement and targeting at night. Now, these people are irrelevant, but that's beside the point. Its not  up for debate in so much as its an advantage you have that others would quite literally kill for. Making the American Rifleman the deadliest Free Man on earth is my goal. And it should be yours too.