The Best Military and Tactical Goggles

Safeguarding your vision is essential because it's your most valuable resource in any difficult circumstance. Conventional sunglasses shield your eyes from the sun's harmful rays but they are not made for the hard conditions that law enforcement fire emergency medical services and military personnel encounter. Tactical eyewear can help in this situation. Clear and tinted tactical goggles are designed to provide maximum protection and optimal performance.

Understanding Tactical Glasses

Most of the glasses and sunglasses you see at big-box retailers, malls, and your optometrist's office are not tactical eyewear. The functions of tactical glasses differ from those of regular glasses. Key characteristics of tactical glasses are as follows:

1- Ballistic protection: Impacts with high velocities like shrapnel or debris, are not a problem for tactical glasses.

2- Durability: The sturdy materials used to make tactical glasses allow them to survive rough treatment and severe weather. The frames are composed of T90-style durable material or nylon while the lenses can be made of polycarbonate or Trivex plastic. These materials are made with strength and lightweight in mind.

3- Visual Clarity: The optical clarity of tactical goggles remains unaltered despite their durability and ballistic protection features. This is crucial for those whose vision is needed for tasks like shooting or navigating in low light.

4- UV Protection: Moreover, they resist scratches. To protect the eyes from the sun's harmful rays many tactical goggles also provide UV protection.

The Selection Guide for Tactical Eyewear

Ballistic-rated polycarbonate lenses are used in military eyewear to withstand harsh weather and impact hazards in tactical and combat situations. The requirements are far more stringent than typical industry safety requirements. The following are crucial characteristics of military eyewear to consider.

Material of the Lens

The best lens material for tactical goggles is polycarbonate because it excels in three key areas: impact resistance weight and built-in UV protection. To create ballistic goggles, polycarbonate offers the highest impact resistance. Even under extreme impact, it remains intact and nearly unbreakable. Its weight is less than half that of glass making the eyewear lighter and more comfortable to wear. It blocks UV rays in the absence of a special UV-blocking lens coating. Plus, their price is less than that of Trivex lenses. Its weakness is that even with an anti-scratch coating polycarbonate is softer than glass and more prone to scratches.

UV 400 Safety

Ultra-violet rays are invisible electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun. Serious eye damage can arise from prolonged exposure to UV radiation. UVA, UVB, and UVC are the three different forms of UV radiation. UVA is the most harmful to the eyes followed by UVB. The ozone layer blocks the majority of UVC radiation. UV400 protection is provided by the intrinsic UV-blocking qualities of polycarbonate and Trivex lenses which completely block UV and HEV light up to 400 nm.

Scratch-resistant coating

The anti-scratch coating is a thin transparent protective layer that is applied to the surface of lenses to prevent hairline scratches which are common on many lenses. This prolongs the life of the tactical goggles without affecting the functionality of the lenses. Compared to glass lenses, polycarbonate lenses are considerably softer and more prone to scratches from cleaning agents or unintentional falls.

Although they are not scratchproof lenses with anti-scratch coating are resistant to scratches. Depending on the surface to be coated, this coating can be applied manually by spraying or by dipping. To prevent fogging in cold weather, tactical eyewear typically has an anti-fog coating applied to the inside and an anti-scratch coating applied to the outside. It should be mentioned that any lens surface can only have one kind of coating applied to it.

Anti-Fog Coating

When the temperature of the lenses is much lower than the outside air fogging develops on the inside of the lenses during cold weather. Not only is this irritating, but it also poses a risk to your safety as it obscures your vision and can be extremely hazardous for law enforcement and military personnel. The primary attribute of military goggles is their anti-fog coating. If fogging forces, the goggles to be removed, it is useless in a combat zone. When athlete's bodies are hot and sweaty this issue also frequently arises with the eyewear they wear.

A transparent anti-fog coating is applied to the inside surface of the lens to reduce fogging when one moves from a cooler to a relatively warm area. By lowering the dew point this coating helps to postpone the formation of water droplets on the lens surface. This coating is applied to the interior surface of lenses which include glass polycarbonate and plastic lenses. Holding the lens surface up against the steam rising from a glass filled with hot water is an easy way to determine if your glasses have anti-fog properties.

If the lens has an anti-fog coating, fogging won’t occur otherwise water droplets will begin to condense in a matter of seconds. Fogging can only be postponed it cannot be eliminated. Even lenses with anti-fog coatings will fog at the proper temperature and humidity. Air circulation which exchanges the humid air inside the goggles with the less humid air outside can help prevent the humidity from building up inside the tactical goggles which is the challenge.

Ways to Maintain Coated Tactical Goggal Lenses

On the other hand, due to the time-consuming nature of coating each surface individually, eyewear with lenses that have distinct sorts of coatings on them is significantly more expensive. Eyewear with lenses with the same coating on both surfaces is less expensive because the lens only needs to be dipped in the solution. It is essential to clean the lens surface with the soft microfiber cloth that comes with the military goggles and to keep the glasses in the soft case that comes with them to prevent scratches. Since the interior surface is typically coated with anti-fog coating rather than anti-scratch coating, extra caution must be used when cleaning it.

Fit Guide For Ballistic Eyewear

Making sure the ballistic glasses fit correctly is the last step to take after you've chosen the ideal pair. Make sure the goggles or glasses you select fit properly by using these tips:

Your nose and your ears should bear the same amount of the weight of your ballistic eyewear.
The frame should not pinch or rub against your nose or ears during wear.
Make sure that the lenses or frames of your glasses are not in contact with your eyelashes.
If your eyeglass's metal frames need to be slightly adjusted, you can do so by bending them at the bridge or temples.
You might adjust the nose pads made of plastic if they don't fit correctly. It just boils down to what's best for you when selecting a ballistic eyewear pair.

Goggles and glasses with an ANSI Z87 rating will protect you from impacts if you're a civilian shooter. Following the protection standards specified in MIL-PRF and MIL-DTL is imperative if you are in the military. There are lots of extra safety measures and solutions available to protect your eyes even more and keep you safe.