The early, first generation U.S. gear was designed for the boondocks and did not have circuitry to prevent an overload of light from burning out the image tube, not to mention the user's eyeball. It was also fairly bulky, compared to the later stuff, but generally had very good optics. Starlight gear was upgraded with ABC circuitry during the rebuild process. The current U.S., third generation equipment is continuing the trend towards smaller, lighter, and more robust designs, with even higher light amplification of 85,000X to 125,000X and beyond. My comment about Starlight night vision gear being like your television set was deadly serious.
All televisions sold in the United States use leaded glass in their picture tubes.
This is to reduce your exposure to the Gamma and X-ray radiation generated by the image tubes. All U.S. Government Issue Starlight gear uses leaded glass for the image tubes AND all the optical lenses between the image tube and the user's eys. I don't know. As it is highly unlikely that you would constantly use Starlight night vision gear, the risks of exposure from the Imported gear can be minimized. The U.S. military has their own standard and it isn't the same as the Russian standard.