Rifle Scopes

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Starmyth

Has any military equipt rifle squads with scopes (WWII)? I'm talking about regular rifle squads, not snipers. Training infantry in the use of rifles with scopes is less demanding and less expensive than the training for smipers.

Certainly not.

In WW2 precision optics were hugely expensive and rather delicate accessories. The light gathering properties were poor as well, so attaching them would make the weapons useless in the evening, night and dusk etc. They were also big and bulky.

It really was only in the 1980s that individual weapon sights such as on the SA-80 became cheap enough, rugged enough, light enough and small enough and also useful in poor light enough to justify mass adoption for some Western armies.

Cheers
Andy