That's strange. I thought I knew that you like the equipment pool concept.

It's called "Mutterschiff " (concept) concept in Germany. An infantry squad has a mothership (Boxer APC) where it leaves all unnecessary equipment. This allows for much more equipment for choice than the squad could reasonably carry at once. A squad .50BMG rifle and Pzf3 munitions, for example.

I applied this to the platoon for even less often needed equipment; a spotting scope, for example.
So there would be a squad mothership and a platoon mothership (platoon Sgt vehicle).

I would assign spotting scopes to the latter because it's unlikely that the platoon needs to equip more than two observation posts with such a device.

The utility of such a scope is after all
- to detect/identify something far away (beyond the normal area of interest/weapon range of infantry)
- to identify suspicious objects within weapon range (but at the upper end of it) that could not be identified with binoculars (snipers).
Both preferably from a fixed position.

The long range aspect reduces the quantitative requirement; a platoon could make do with two easily in almost all situations.


We should also keep in mind that monocular optics are quite exhausting to the eye and have a very small field of view due to their strong magnification; they're therefore not very good for general observation tasks (detecting movements).

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Thermal sensors are great for the detection of otherwise adequately camouflaged targets/objects and for looking/aiming through simple smoke - and not for much else afaik.