“The first $100 Aimpoint type sights were used in the early 70’s. The Army didn’t mass issue them until the early 90’s. 20 years.”
We had them in 2nd ACR, but were never allowed to use them.
I was in 7th Group (80-82) and we personally bought them off post, but were told to not have them on unless we were at a quiet range. The fist time I used them, I couldn’t believe the effect of them. The fist few hours, my shooting kind of went down, I was so fascinated by the floating red dot. And at night? Low light? What a difference. I couldn’t figure out why something so cheap, so easy, so effective was ignored.