I do not have any experience doing night land nav, nor as a forward observer. It must be 10 years old and still in good order. This is the original Silva that I was issued. The base plate can be used to rule your bearing onto the map lightly using pencil. It is much easier to get quick bearings without using your protractor for quick obvious legs by simply aligning the Vertical lines on the compass card with the Eastings on the map. The other good feature of the Silva compasses is that you get a 1:50000 and 1:25000 roamer on the base plate. You need only look down at the compass periodically for confirmation.įor military work, the compass would be put away while the patrol moved to that landmark selected through the prism, the patrol commander keeping the scouts on route using hand signals. Once you have established you bearing from the map you can sight the compass in on an object and simply walk to it. The prismatic feature is good because you can sight the compass onto a tree, a feature, a star, building anything and get a much more accurate bearing from the prism than you would just moving the compass card, aligning the dots and looking down the length of the compass to the selected object. Obviously looking up from time to time so you don't walk into a tree!! I always use a head down approach to movement at night! That is check you compass card to ensure that the three dots are aligned and keep you head down looking at the compass card. Tactically, this was done using a bush hat or under a jacket or similar so not to show any white light. If you are conducting night navigation you will have to 'charge' the tritium with a flash of white light from time to time in order to keep the glow nice and bright while moving. The Military Silva 54B Prismatic Compass does have Tritium and is very good even after quite a while operating at night. I like the Mil system as it is 17.8 times more accurate than Degrees! One degree is equal to 17.8 Mils. For military application there were times where we had to rapidly convert Mils to Degrees in order to direct air strikes using aircraft that could not convert Mils. So all of units in the U.S that I have taught land navigation to have all used and been familiar with the Degrees System.Īll land nav in the Australian Army is done using the Mil System. But, it has a rotating bezel, that allows you to follow a course in the dark. Because you still have to use a flashlight to read the mils. (Like when you call for fire) but isn't necessary if you're on foot.ĭoes the Silva compass have tritium? Or is it luminous by shining a light on it? The GI issue comes in both versions. The sight is good for taking bearings to distant objects. I'm hearing that the military style compass, is not needed for basic land navigation. "Mils were for the artillery," I was told. But I was taught degrees, for land navigation. If you need further information, please contact us. We offer full 5-Day Land Navigation packages. I will always go back to the most robust method, a metal click pace counter taped to the weapons fore grip area. A good thin piece of nylon for plotting bearings is recommended.Īs for pace counting, I have used almost everything out there from knotted para-cord and beads, click style pace counters, pedometers and GPS wrist watches. You can get any plastic protractor anywhere that has both degrees and mils either in a complete 6400/360 format or a half protractor. I have a Silva plastic cover for it also which protects the compass dial for Military work as it normally resides in the top left shirt pocket. This is probably the best compass on the market for land navigation. Mils are my preferred format for Land Navigation, while degrees for Coastal navigation for water ops. I have taught a lot of land navigation to U.S Military and it pains me to have to use Degrees rather than Mils. I am a big advocate of using MGRS and Mils as the preferred map and compass combo.
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