Up Periscope: A Hands-On with AGM Thermals, by GuerrillaLogistician

Observation Post #6
Location: Somewhere in the Ozarks
Date: Sooner than any of us want

Mike watched the sun going down over the ridge, his rifle sitting up against some polycro sheet he was using to cover the observation slit and dirt wall. Mike and Calvin had draped two sheets, creating an air gap, hoping to prevent some heat leaks while allowing them to observe outside. The fine bits of dirt randomly floated in the air from the wood ceiling they had constructed with earth and small plants to help hide themselves. As the sun dropped, lower visibility got harder, but both knew soon they would be under night vision and had already pulled their NVGs and attached them to their helmets. Two TinySA Ultras were collecting radio signals as they sat, Calvin flipping covers open and closed on cases that protected the fragile equipment. He noted signals in a small logbook and a very tiny red light for the SIGINT portion of their observation.

“Mike, I got a possible on VHF” , Calvin said in a whispered voice. He quickly wrote down the signal and dialed his AR-152 to the frequency he had just seen pop up. Leaning into the H-250 dog bone hand mic he listened, but the signal had gone away. While Calvin was deeply trying to find any more signs of life on the air, Mike was desperately trying to find anyone nearby. The narrow valley and position of the hide kept most direct signals like VHF from coming in or going out of the valley. At best the signal would bounce from wall to wall of the valley not only making DF a bit harder but preventing signals from going over the ridge. The only viable way to get the signal out was a repeater or using a drone with a repeater box on it. This little tactic was being used more often, but Calvin didn’t see any signals for a drone on the second TinySA Ultra. The sleepy sun hadn’t yet given way to twilight, even if the lower part of the valley was dark. Compounding the issue Mike tried the night vision as well but it was far too bright for any decent observation at his location. “Use the stingIR”, Calvin whispered as he handed over the AGM stingIR 384 from Mike’s kit.

Mike grabbed the little device wanting to slap his forehead for not thinking of it earlier, “Thanks, brother.” Turning on the device the quick little boot-up popped on as he shut off his NVGs and put his helmet back down. Lifting the Thermal to his eye, he saw nothing but a solid wall of color. He looked down at the device verifying everything was ok and realized in his haste the cap was on. Quickly looking again through the thermal he saw a wall of color again and cursed under his breath. He hadn’t used anything but vehicle-mounted thermals in the Marines, and now he was worried it was broken. As he lowered the thermal for a second time, he almost smacked his head again. Going to the edge of the plastic he moved both sheets just enough to look out and started scanning. He slowly panned around for several minutes before harshly whispering “Fucking bingo I got’em.” Taking a second or two to scan the area, and use the zoom feature he added, “Looks like a heavy scout team, maybe for a larger element.”

Calvin set down the notebook and radio transitioning to his rifle. He turned on the AGM Rattler TC35-640 thermal slid his corner of the polycro open and pushed his rifle out allowing the thermal a good view. Mike directed him to the location referencing previous known distances and landmarks they had already figured out on their range card. Within seconds, Calvin was looking at the scout team that went in and out of cover. Zooming in, he started to capture a few shots of the team moving onto his optic. “I have PID on small arms”, Calvin whispered, “Keep them in sight. I am going to get these images loaded on the tablet.” Pulling the rifle back in and securing the plastic to hide their thermal signature, Calvin through a woobie over himself and pulled out an old Microsoft tablet. Within moments he had taken the images off the Rattler and loaded them for a later transmission back to HQ. Not only would the report have the details, but higher would also have thermal images of the forces. It may not be a clear daylight photo, but it was intel, and intel was priceless.

Let’s first get this out in the open. I am not an expert or even remotely knowledgeable on thermals. I am an operator of these devices, not a powerhouse of knowledge. If you want a detailed breakdown, there are smarter people on the subject. If you want horsepower and engine specs, go with the car enthusiast; if you want to know if it drives well, I will give you my opinion. If you know better write in the comments where I got things wrong. I partly know what I am talking about, but I also know my knowledge gap is about as wide as liberal in Hawaii talking about AR-15s, so treat this as it is, an uneducated man and what he has learned so far. I did verify some of this with others who know the tools of the trade better so my recommendations at the end aren’t out of line. Also no I am not going to get any kick back, and no I am not getting paid, but I did stay at the G-camp and got free coffee, so take that into account of my bias as well.

Like all things in my series, if I can tie it into submarines, I will. This is to remind you that a G-unit has more in common with a submarine, than that of a standing army. A small fighting vessel like a sub is fragile, yet deadly, able to punch above its weight class if commanded right, your teams are just that and will be required to operate in much the same way. The first thing in your F3EAD/D3A is Find and Fix just like a submarine you will be trying to Find the enemy and fix where it is, and where it is going. In the Reece course, you get a lot of that hands-on, and just like a Submarine, you have a general area of operation. Sometimes the objective is to sight the enemy for follow-on forces, be it Naval combatants or larger ground forces. Both the modern Submarine and you will rely on electronic detection as well as Optical detection systems. A major improvement on submarines was night vision, but now periscopes have a suite of observation systems from Night Vision, electro-magnetic detection, and thermal. The thermals for the submarine allow it to see through some things like fog and smoke, but for the troops on the ground, thermal becomes as important as night vision. Thermals, however, DO NOT see through solid objects, glass, sheets of plastic, etc.

The nice thing about OpFor is you get to come to class and play with some of the new tech for sale. You also get to play around against an opponent who knows generally where you are and is learning how to defeat you. While these aren’t true military-style training events where you sit for hours not knowing quite when the attack is going to happen, the job for us is to find the beginner’s deficiencies and help them become educated and do a better job. In doing so, you also find out ways that you could mess up along the way. Some of you may have taken scout courses and locations other than the G camp as I have, and you also may have taken it years ago. Let’s just say that technology has advanced, prices have gone down, and the common off-the-shelf COTS items are getting more prevalent. As I traveled the US for other reasons I got to see different environments and as I got exposed to new technology such as things like the TinySA Ultra I learned to recommend or not recommend things. Doubly so, this also goes for NCScout, who trains more people than I will ever talk to on the subject. Several years ago, the most affordable thermals would cost you over $1000 and give you a terrible but almost unusable image of your environment. They were only good for looking for hot spots on houses etc. It wasn’t until you reached the 10,000 price point these devices became a force multiplier. To say the least, these items were not like the military or FLIR thermals that some of you may have had. Several years ago, the entry-level FLIR would cost you thousands. Today, FLIR won’t sell to civilian markets, just like many military weapons manufacturers. While I assume FLIR isn’t doing this to denigrate its loyal fans like some gun manufacturers have, FLIR just seems to be overloaded with gov contracts. This has opened up competition space from places like AGM, and others.

So, what did we, the students and OpFor, actually see in class this time? A bunch of optics from www.Brushbeater.store which also included Night Vision. While the store has room to get more items, so far he has almost everything you need to start. Let’s focus on the thermals, though. Scout has decided on 5 products from AGM and one from Trijicon. I won’t review all of them, because I didn’t handle them all. There are 3 main designs. Helmet-mounted, weapons-mounted (still can be used in a hand-held fashion), and hand-only. Let’s get the handheld out of the way. I didn’t touch it but the Sidewinder is basically for static operation. It is a handheld device, and if you have seen the old FLIR Scout, it’s similar in form and function. It also has all the bells and whistles of the weapons-mounted ones. If you are defending this guy has 7 hours of run time on a single charge and zooms from 1-8x. I had to mention it because my original experience beyond vehicle-mounted equipment was the FLIR Scout. They have a place in the world of thermals and absolutely have the zoom, and operating time without external power needed. That said like all of these can take external power.

Here is a video of the one Scout carries against others in its class. Also note while zoom features differ, the 640 vs 384 as reference for later.

Let’s discuss what we used. We were given the Rattler TC35-384 and the StingIR 640 to play with. Others had brought NVGs and thermals that were brought to class. The best example of the effects was during the night raid on the improvised airfield. Vehicles had been set up so their headlights could be turned on, creating a landing space for rotatory wing aircraft, and as OpFor, our job was not only to be the target but to find errors in concealment and nudge students into realizing they were compromised. OpFor tells students and sometimes it comes off as, “Look how cool we are that we found you.” The reality is more along the lines, of this is where you were spotted, what we used to spot you, and maybe a recommendation for the student. The best OpFor tries to make you work better and harder without destroying the purpose of the training. I spent a lot of my previous life at night in the dark, and what you learn fast, both through ambient light and night vision, you feel hidden more often than you are. This is where friendly OpFor can help you instead of learning from an enemy the hard way. I was on a small patrol team with Mando, who had two patrols walking the woodline. We caught two people in a very bad position with our NVG near a fence line. Reporting back that info, we withdrew to see if they would shift. Meanwhile, as we pulled back, the StingIR had identified a total of 4 individuals. As we arrived back, the guy operating the StingIR came to us and showed us what we had spotted plus the additional people who were hidden a bit better from the NVGs we were using. Little did we know something else was going on as well. Another gentleman of many years of experience caught two other individuals hiding in the trees with the weapons mounted Rattler TC35-384, at about the same distance but 90 degrees off from our original find. Handing me his rifle just minutes after playing with the StingIR, I clear as day see two other people prone, looking at us. The different color schemes set apart targets to PID in the field (as you can see from one of the images above). To be fair to the students, they were using as much cover as they could, and if it had been summer, the leaves probably would have prevented such easy observation by us while giving them a mostly clear view of our position. The guy who found them, I believe, said they looked like sleeping animals initially before a hand signal was used. Regardless even in the open, what gave them away was a human action much more than a heat source. Sometimes being seen isn’t terrible, but being positively identified is. A little bit later final call from higher gave them the green light, and the woods erupted with more trainees laying fire from even more secluded positions. What is the moral of the story here? Even though some forces were easily spotted at night, others remained hidden until engaged. The thermals are great, and a force multiplier, but only see what is visible to its sensor. Things like leaves, plastic, wood, and even cardboard can insulate you from seeing something.

https://brushbeater.store/products/agm-rattler-tc35-640
https://brushbeater.store/products/agm-rattler-tc35-384

So what did I learn, and what do I personally recommend? Well, Scout and I kind of have the same feeling. The 384 is functional, and the big difference is pixelation with zoom(see the video link). Taking photos with this device is cool as hell, so you don’t have to hold a camera up to the eyepiece and get a shit photo; capture images or video, plug it in, and go. I do know that many former ISIS guys like to run clip-on thermals where they run power packs to the thermals and have power basically all day, all night. They have been scary effective at killing cops, with this with videos popping up on arab sites from time to time as propaganda. These thermals really allow that right out of the box. Imagine a clip-on thermal in front of your dedicated optic, the Rattler running a small battery pack on your rifle, and boom, you have one freaking hardcore force multiplier.

https://brushbeater.store/products/agm-stingir-384
https://brushbeater.store/products/agm-stingir-640

The StingIR is very interesting for movement and observation but is not a weapons mount. It can be mounted next to a PVS-14 or the AGM Wolf NVGs, but I will discuss that later. Its small form factor really stands out, and the bonus of being helmet-mounted really shines. This thing is almost something you could palm and would be a great asset for those in less permissive environments doing recon. It could not only pick out people, it can also tell you a lot about what areas in an urban area or occupied from a distance. I would assume this might become another tool in the Intelligence Collection and Tradecraft course as well. Knowing the location where he holds that class may not make thermals as useful as it would in bigger cities though. I know I have run NVGs to find cameras in dark urban environments that had IR lighting. I am sure this would be a nice low-profile device for that. As for walking with the thermals…. You can kind of but it isn’t like walking with NVGs. You can dual set up the system and be good to go. Some of you will want the extra quality of the 640 model but seriously I think the 384 will do you for movement with NODs or scanning.

Recommendation

If you live mainly in heavily wooded areas, the 384 will do all the work you will ever need. AGM says the 384 series works well out to 880 yards. If you live in the plains like Kansas, Oklahoma or up in open/mountain terrain with less vegetation, I might look into getting the clip-on like the Rattler 640 with AGMs 1750 yard visibility. Places like Wyoming Survival loves to showcase would be ideal for the 640 series. I may even want to grab the Sidewinder with the extra zoom. If you have the funding, a 384 StingIR and a Rattler in 640 would be my choice setup. As of now, I don’t own any of these because even though I want it and the cost is really good, it still is an investment, so if I was hard-pressed and money was an issue I think the 384 clip-on would be my first go-to. What I will say is the 640 vs 384 and buys remorse may make you want to over spend. Using both devices at reasonable combat distances of under 400 yards, I didn’t see the 640 really outshine the 384, but remember your terrain and use case. As for helmet-mounted work the 384 stingIR is way more valuable then you would think.