GPNVG-18

GPNVG-18
Manufacturer(s)	L3Harris
Type	Panoramic
Tube Format	MX-10160
FoV	40° / 120°
Mount	Wilcox Dovetail or Ball Detent
Objective(s)	Proprietary
Eyepiece(s)	Proprietary

Used by special forces around the world, the GPNVG-18 are the first panoramic night vision goggles developed for infantry use.

History

According to the firsthand account of a DEVGRU soldier who participated in the night raid of Osama Bin Laden's compound in May 2011, he and his team were using the GPNVG-18 for the operation.

Pop-Culture

As the movie Zero Dark Thirty (2012) dramatizes the raid of Osama Bin Laden's compound, the replicas of the GPNVG-18 were worn by the actors of the soldiers.

The independent movie director Evan Royalty released the movie SCP: Dollhouse (2019) on Youtube, based off the collaborative-writing wikis-styled website SCP Foundation, in which special forces unit of the aforementioned foundation use the GPNVG-18 during a night raid on a house suspected to be haunted with paranormal activities. Evan Royalty would release a year later the sequel to Dollhouse titled SCP: Overlord (2020), in which SCP Foundation's special forces soldiers heavily use GPNVG-18s. Both Dollhouse and Overlord have combined amassed 31 million views on Youtube.

The GPNVG-18 can also be seen on characters in the movie The Contractor (2022), used by private military company operatives, and in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), used by the French Army operatives.

The first video game appearance of the GPNVG however (and even further, in pop-culture media overaIl) is attributed to the game Medal Of Honor: Warfighter (2012), released just two months before the premiere of Zero Dark Thirty.

In the Call Of Duty frachise, the first appearance of GPNVG's is seen in Call Of Duty: Ghosts (2013) in promo art and is worn by one of the characters during a mission. GPNVG’s would return to the franchise in 2019 with the rebooted Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare sub-franchise of the series. The player gets to use the panoramic night vision device during several missions in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) such as the missions Clean House, Going Dark and The Wolf's Den, where the goggles are used primarily by the SAS and the CIA special forces. Specifically thanks to Modern Warfare (2019) and memorable missions like Clean House did the GPNVG enter futher public concious as part of the "ultimate special forces unit soldier" aesthetic of military pop-culture. The GPNVG reappeared in Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II (2022) and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) in missions Kill Or Capture and Operation 627.

Due to the popularity of the Rebooted Modern Warfare games, the zombie survival franchise with military elements, Resident Evil, featured it in it's 2021 eighth installment, Resident Evil Village (2021), used by special forces unit Hound Wolf Squad.

is furthermore featured in the video games Escape From Tarkov (2016), and in Ground Branch (2018).

GPNVG also makes it's appearance in the newer Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon games, such as in Wildlands (2017), and in Breakpoint (2019).