Para's & Marines Vs. Line Regiments

[voodoo sprout]

It's not even trilux (I've no idea what that is), it's tritium, which is mildly radioactive hence nasty . And when exposed (it's normally covered in the SUSAT), it illuminates the point of the sight blade red to make it visible in low light. As for gas, it may have an inert gas inside but I'm not that good with optics so can't say .

[RobT]

it ain't trillium foo', it's trilux, hence sight unit small arms TRILUX

My instructor lied to me then..or i'm deaf (most probubly deaf)



http://www.arrse.co.uk/html/modules.php ... 4fa87c452f

[chrisfow]

"Line" units don't resent Paras or RM, just have regimental pride as said above. Yes they can do most (if not all) of what the Cherry Berries/Cabbage Heads do - just look at the 1991 Gulf War and even the one just executed, the Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) did not deploy until AFTER the war was won - by the "normal" boys and girls of the 1st (UK) Amrd Div.

As for the SUSAT, it is a 4x telescopic sight as opposed to using the iron sights that the non-fighting units generally have to put up with. The Tritium lights up the tip of the sight at night (the "firefly"). If you smash a SUSAT, SOP is to run like hell out of the building while opening any windows if you have the time!

[lew]

Why do you have to run like hell and open any windows you can at the time???

lew

[RobT]

It has some nasty gas stuff inside. When dropped it could smash releasing the gas. Your told to basically open windows and run away! They call out a specialist unit which deals with the broken sight.

Rob

[Dave.Mil]

Time to be a smart arse.

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen which has one proton and two neutrons . It emits beta particles only and has a half-life of 12.3 years. The maximum beta energy is 18 keV, and the mean beta energy is 6 keV. A beta particle with energy of less than 70 keV will not penetrate the dead outer layer of the skin. Therefore, tritium is not an external radiation hazard , but when taken into the body it becomes an internal hazard .

Uptakes of tritium usually result from inhalation and skin absorption, but ingestion is also possible. The blood distributes tritiated water equally among all the body fluids, just as it does with normal water. All the soft tissues in the body will be irradiated by the decaying tritium and they constitute 90% of the body weight. As a result any tritium in the body will lead to a whole body equivalent dose

So there you go.

On the original question, All units have their knobheads that will claim they are better than anybody else, the truth is most units are as good at their job as any other. Those that have a specialised role are obviously going to be better at that because thats what they train for.

[lew]

So its bad for you then dave

A few more questions...

1 are the SUAT's hard to brake???
2 why do they use such a dangerous gas???
3 do all other sites, i.e. the sniper rifle site (sorry dont know what its called) have the same gas in them???
4 what does the gas actually do???

sorry for all the quesitons...


lew

[RobT]

So its bad for you then dave

A few more questions...

1 are the SUAT's hard to brake???
2 why do they use such a dangerous gas???

I've seen a complete nobber (Who's left now, i hope) Drop his Gat out the back of a bedford (static). Nothing broke though, so its fairly sturdy.

Its hard to get X4 magnification without arsing around with dangerous Gas!

[bullpup]

Time to be a slightly bigger smartarse than before:

Tritium can be absorbed through inhalation which is why specialist recovery crews are involved in recovering broken SUSAT sights.

Tritium is used in a wide variety of applications (outwith the remit of this site)


sorry to be so pedantic!

Bull

Ps; The SUSAT sight is quite harmless given the small quantities of Tritium it contains; but as a briefing once said about the SA80 and the SUSAT; it won't work in rain, sleet or snow or in smoke. If it breaks then the SA80 becomes the most expensive club in the world!"

[Dave.Mil]

Tritium is used in lots of military equipments theres loads all over the place to illuminate things(very specific) It's safe unless you eat or breathe it. The quantity you are talking about in general use is minute everybody in this country probably got bigger radiation doses from Chernobyl than you would get from a broken susat.

They used to (many years ago)use radio active substances to illuminate watches that would send a gigacounter mental.


Still wearing your grandads old watch?

[chrisfow]

1 are the SUSATs hard to brake???
2 why do they use such a dangerous gas???
3 do all other sites, i.e. the sniper rifle site (sorry dont know what its called) have the same gas in them???
4 what does the gas actually do???

Some of this has been answered but hey!

1) Yes!
2) They use tritium because it is the best for the job, the job being lighting up the "firefly" on the tip of the sight. This is just an adjustable red dot on the tip of the sight so that you can see what your aim picture is gonna be.
3) I doubt whether the high magnification sights use it, just because I haven't seen the word trilux or acronym 'T' in their names. The CWS (Common Weapon Sight) does not, because it is a passive night vision sight, you know the kind that turns the world light green.
4) I answered this one in 2)

Beta radiation isn't as bad as alpha, so just be pleased it isn't that! Anyway, your average Silva military compass uses radioactive material to light up the needle tip. Then there is the radiation emitted from every object that you see every single day. Tritium and the stuff used in the compass is obviously more radioactive than this background radiation, but it is nothing to get too worked up about!

Hope that helps/is interesting lew!

Chris

[lew]

Yea cheers Chris, that helped allot, being in the TA and signals at that we don’t have them and until I go reg I’m likely never to see one, so was just one of those questions I had to ask...


lew

[RobT]

I have lew. Nerrr ner neerrr ner nerrrr! *sticks tongue out*



Rob

[cannon_fodder]

They call out a specialist unit which deals with the broken sight.

I've only ever heard of one breaking, but the lad that did it was made to put on his respirator and nbc gloves, take a pair of tweezers and put all the little pieces of glass into a jam jar.

Mat.