page_title: Binoculars
section_title: Military
hierarchical_section_title: Binoculars / Applications / Military
caption_attribution_description: German U.D.F. 7×50 U-boat binoculars (1939-1945). The 7x50 UDF binoculars were made of heavy 464 navalbrass to help prevent corrosion from salt water and could be submerged to 300 m. They weigh about 6 kg. The right prism cover, has a lever, that controls the day/night filtersystem. On the Conning Tower of every U-boat was a device known as the U.Z.O. (Uberwasser - Ziel – Optik) which took the form of a pedestal,graded in degrees around its top and with an attachment bracket to which a pair of heavy duty U.D.F. 7×50 binoculars could be fitted. The U.Z.O. was linked to the U-boat's central attack computer in the commander's battle station,transmitting targeting data as the binoculars were trained on the target. Merseyside Maritime Museum
context_page_description: Binoculars or field glasses are two telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects. Most are sized to be held using both hands, although sizes vary widely from opera glasses to large pedestal mounted military models.
  Unlike a telescope, binoculars give users a three-dimensional image: for nearer objects the two views, presented to each of the viewer's eyes from slightly different viewpoints, produce a merged view with an impression of depth.
context_section_description: Binoculars have a long history of military use. Galilean designs were widely used up to the end of the 19th century when they gave way to porro prism types. Binoculars constructed for general military use tend to be more rugged than their civilian counterparts. They generally avoid fragile center focus arrangements in favor of independent focus, which also makes for easier, more effective weatherproofing. Prism sets in military binoculars may have redundant aluminized coatings on their prism sets to guarantee they don't lose their reflective qualities if they get wet.
  One variant form was called "trench binoculars", a combination of binoculars and periscope, often used for artillery spotting purposes. It projected only a few inches above the parapet, thus keeping the viewer's head safely in the trench.
  Military binoculars of the Cold War era were sometimes fitted with passive sensors that detected active IR emissions, while modern ones usually are fitted with filters blocking laser beams used as weapons. Further, binoculars designed for military usage may include a stadiametric reticle in one ocular in order to facilitate range estimation.
  There are binoculars designed specifically for civilian and military use at sea. Hand held models will be 5× to 7× but with very large prism sets combined with eyepieces designed to give generous eye relief. This optical combination prevents the image vignetting or going dark when the binoculars are pitching and vibrating relative to the viewer's eye. Large, high-magnification models with large objectives are also used in fixed mountings.
  Very large binocular naval rangefinders (up to 15 meters separation of the two objective lenses, weight 10 tons, for ranging World War II naval gun targets 25 km away) have been used, although late-20th century technology made this application mostly redundant.
caption: German U-boat binoculars (1939-1945)
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