The Long Road to the Battlefield: Active Shooter Headphones

Today we will talk again about some technical solutions that could potentially have been used in wars and armed conflicts fifty years ago, but for some reason have only reached the battlefield relatively recently.

Earlier, in the material "Banks" on combined arms small arms: a long journey on the battlefield we talked about how long it took for the "cans" to get to the battlefield, despite the fact that in a number of scenarios of use they can be very effective, for example, when working indoors, since they significantly reduce the acoustic impact on the hearing organs of fighters - with intensive shooting indoors without headphones, you can get a concussion, partial or complete, temporary or even permanent hearing loss.

Of course, there is no point in considering the use of conventional “passive” headphones now – they are inconvenient to use even at a shooting range, and in combat, the inability to hear fellow soldiers can lead to a fatal outcome, but there is a solution – these are active shooting headphones, which we will talk about today.

Retrospective

Active shooting headphones or personal hearing protection equipment (PPE) with electronic components are essentially a hearing aid with the function of cutting off sounds when they exceed a certain specified level. However, modern hearing aids also have such a function.

The first electric hearing aid was designed by Werner von Siemens back in 1878, and from the beginning of the XNUMXth century, hearing aids began to be mass-produced; however, due to their large size and poor amplification, they were not popular.

"Acousticon" - an electric hearing aid from the early 20th century (USA)

The theoretical basis for active noise cancellation was laid in 1933 by Paul Lueg, PhD, who filed a patent for using phase-shifted waves to cancel sine tones in channels and invert polarity – the patent was granted in 1936.

After the invention of transistors, the efficiency of hearing aids increased significantly, while their size and power consumption decreased, which contributed to a sharp increase in their popularity.

The first active headphones were developed for helicopter pilots as early as 1957. In 1979, Bose began developing civilian active headphones for airline pilots and passengers. In 1986, prototypes of Bose active headphones preserved the hearing of pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager during their record-breaking nonstop around-the-world flight in the Rutan Model 76 Voyager.

The first active shooting headphones from Peltor, developed in 1981, were not very comfortable, since their electronics were located in a small compartment on the belt, but then they quickly evolved. Currently, two "branches" of active shooting headphones can be distinguished - full-size headphones and compact earplugs inserted into the auricles.

Although the first passive earphones for hearing protection were used during the First World War, it appears that active earphones did not initially attract much interest from the military, being used only as part of the equipment of pilots and drivers of noisy combat vehicles.

For example, going back to the movie Black Hawk Down, you can see that there are no active headphones in the Delta Force or Rangers’ gear – and we are talking about the US Armed Forces, which are equipped with the most modern examples of scientific and technological achievements.

However, a film is a film, but even in photographs of US military personnel taken in various hot spots around the world, active shooting headphones are absent.

By the way, hunters and sportsmen quickly appreciated the new product. It can be said that active shooting headphones came to the armed forces from the world of shooting sports and hunting.

Our time

Of course, there is no talk of using active shooting headphones either in the USSR Armed Forces, for example, during the war in Afghanistan, or in the Russian Armed Forces, during both wars in Chechnya, as well as the war of 08.08.08. Actually, there are no questions about the Soviet Union and Russia - "no time for fat".

And it’s not even that the late Soviet Union was already significantly behind the USA in the field of electronics – we somehow made hearing aids, and in the general collapse of the country’s economy, which reached its peak in the early 90s, and the attitude towards the army was corresponding, and in the “fat” years of super-profits from oil sales, we had other problems, which, apparently, we began to fight only under the new Minister of Defense Belousov.

From left to right: a vacuum-tube hearing aid of the Zvuk type (1956), a Crystal hearing aid for compensating for air or bone conduction hearing loss (1956), and an Elektronika U-2 hearing aid (late 1980s). Image by museum.social-tech.ru

Meanwhile, active shooting headphones were widely advertised in specialized publications devoted to hunting and sports, and they could be freely purchased if one had the financial means.

Nowadays, the cost of active shooting headphones has dropped significantly; the market offers both inexpensive Chinese models and high-quality Russian, European and American brands.

According to publicly available data, active hearing protection systems have been widely used in the US military since around 2012, in the form of the TCAPS system, which consists of a pair of earbuds, a microphone, and a main unit attached to the uniform.

TCAPS

Active headphones appeared in the Russian Armed Forces even later - as part of the "Ratnik" equipment kit, but it is still unclear how many of these kits were actually supplied to the troops in full - after all, "advanced" communication equipment was also standard there.

In fact, like the "banks", active shooting headphones began to be actively used by fighters of the private military company (PMC) "Wagner" in the context of the tasks they were solving on the territory of foreign countries. Gradually, the fighters of the Russian Armed Forces began to follow them, acquiring active shooting headphones at their own expense.

Active headphones GSSh-01 6M2 from the "Ratnik" equipment set

When the Russian special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine began, active shooting headphones quickly began to gain popularity among the troops, especially during the mobilization period, when soldiers were advised from all possible sources to purchase them themselves, rather than wait for them to be issued by the supply services of the Russian Armed Forces - and this is indeed a reasonable decision.

In some situations, even some models of headphones designed for listening to music can be used as active headphones.

For example, the author had a chance to shoot a pistol using Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro headphones, and they performed the function of active shooting headphones quite correctly – they instantly muffled the sounds of gunshots and amplified the reflected echo, the sounds of footsteps and conversations around, and the instructor’s commands were clearly audible.

If necessary, civilian headphones can also be effectively used to protect hearing organs.

Of course, using earplugs on the battlefield is not very convenient and hardly advisable, but if in urban conditions, for law enforcement officers "in civilian clothes", then why not? Unlike full-size headphones, earplugs can always be carried with you, although here too, professional solutions will have an advantage.

Professional active earphones-plugs from Tula company Aurica

Conclusions

Why did it take so long for active headphones to reach the battlefield? In fact, this happened in the last 10-15 years, despite the fact that technically they could have been implemented almost half a century ago.

If, as we have already said above, everything is more or less clear with the USSR and Russia, then why did the US Armed Forces ignore this new development?

The answer, most likely, lies again in the plane of the inertia of human thinking, plus the US Armed Forces have a priority aviation и fleet, and the army has always been a “stepchild”, so they receive “new toys” last, however, still before everyone else on the planet.

And only when the Second World War began in Ukraine, with its heavy “face to face” combat operations, with the need to carry out assaults in cities and other populated areas, with an amount of weapons used that is unthinkable for modern wars, artillery, the need for fighters to have modern active shooting headphones has become obvious to everyone.

Comments

[Mikhail Drabkin]

Why doesn't the US use active headphones for Army and Marine infantry?

The warrior's efficiency is proportional to the simultaneous reliability of all systems necessary for the fighter in each of the probable combat scenarios. This is the result of the "AND" function, i.e. in a simplified solution - MULTIPLICATION of the reliability of ALL involved functions... devices. These are weapons, communications (throughout the entire hierarchy of fighters and commanders of the combat scenario), geolocation, target designation - reconnaissance, sensory amplifiers (vision, hearing)...

The more independent systems, the lower the reliability of the fighter's performance. Already according to this simplified model, active headphones reduce the probability of the fighter's performance. And if we consider the 100% loss of any form of communication that uses the fighter's acoustic sensors for the interval of activation of the limiter of the received energy by active headphones, at the moment of the highest tension of combat operations in the unit ... then active headphones are a serious minus in the US Army, since the military doctrine DOES NOT ALLOCATE long and decisive combat operations in contact with the enemy to the INFANTRY and KMP - everything is decided by "Tomahawks", and the infantry is for mopping up ... According to the doctrine, the US Army does not fight long wars and achieves victory with categorical and indisputable power.

If you look at the Israeli army - also a high-tech army - there are no active headphones there either, although infantry combat operations are certainly required by military doctrine.

As a result, the risk of loss of combat capability in moments of the highest tension of combat operations (acoustic energy is proportional to the level... of tension of combat operations) is a significant and possibly insurmountable disadvantage of using active headphones in armies with a doctrine of rapid combat operations.

[Vladimir_2U]

What kind of scientific nonsense.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

And if we take into account the 100% loss of any form of communication that uses the soldier's acoustic sensors for the interval of activation of the limiter of the received energy by active headphones, at the moment of the highest tension of combat operations in the unit... then active headphones are a serious minus in the US Army

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

The more independent systems there are, the lower the reliability of the fighter's performance.

A Mosin rifle with an open sight, or better yet, a spear! The collimator will break, the automatic will jam, and the ammo will run out. But a spear in the form of a crowbar and on a string is always with you!
Well, the headphones are broken, well, the fighter will take them off and THAT'S IT.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

As a result, the risk of loss of combat capability in moments of the highest tension of combat operations (acoustic energy is proportional to the level... of tension of combat operations) is a significant and possibly insurmountable disadvantage of using active headphones in armies with a doctrine of rapid combat operations.

Of course, it is better when a fighter at the moment of "highest tension" is already stunned, or even concussed. (Sarcasm)

[Mikhail Drabkin]

Vladimir_2U:
What didn't you understand in your first paragraph?
During combat, a fighter makes instant decisions based on vision and hearing when the situation changes. A fighter is not effective when he does not hear a shout - after all, the limiter in the active earphone blocks the sound channel for any sound energy, including loud commands, shouts. And the more intense the combat actions, the louder the battle, and the louder the commands - commanders do not remain silent, waiting out the noise of the battle.
The US Army generates high noise levels during fast-paced combat operations (US Army doctrine is to ensure that tasks are achieved in the shortest possible time). The limiter will be turned on more often and for longer periods of time due to its own noise - loud commands will not reach the soldier.

What didn't you understand in the second paragraph?
It is axiomatic - complex systems have lower reliability than simple ones. The entropy of complex systems is higher.
Your examples are inappropriate - yes, a Mosin with an optical sight is less reliable both on the march and in combat. It also requires more maintenance due to the lower reliability of the entire system. However, an optical sight is a necessity for a sniper to perform a combat mission. You can't do it with a crowbar... An assault rifle is more complex than a three-line rifle, but it is a necessary complexity for performing a combat mission. To increase the reliability of the Kalashnikov, they improved reliability in a wide range of climatic conditions and simplified maintenance.
In a complex system there are no unnecessary elements - the use of the system to achieve the set tasks requires all the necessary complexity - an optical sight, all the elements of automation. And if active headphones become elements of standard equipment, then the tactics of the rifle unit will change, integrating their use in combat operations - this means that if they break as you write, then their removal will entail a change in combat operations, and the commander must take this change into account.

What didn't you understand in the third paragraph?
Acoustic headphones cannot prevent contusion and hearing loss because the ear canal is not the only channel for sound energy, and this is especially true for the amplitude-frequency characteristics of explosions that cause contusion or hearing loss. The limiter may not be fast enough, and the attenuation of sound energy by the limiter is insufficient.
-----
Your mockery and offensive tone, unwillingness to understand or ask, demonstration of the lack of elementary logic of use and lack of understanding of the necessary complexity of the weapon you have chosen to perform a combat mission - a crowbar instead of a Mosin rifle, a machine gun without cartridges, lack of understanding of how the change in the standard components of the combat system is reflected in the new methodology of combat operations of units and does not allow you to simply remove the acoustic headphones - all this does not correspond to the severity of your shoulder straps.

Happy New Year to you too!

[SHOPPING MALL]

Quote: Michael Drabkin

...The US Army generates high noise levels during fast-paced combat operations (US Army doctrine is to ensure that tasks are achieved in the shortest possible time). The limiter will be turned on more often and for longer periods of time due to its own noise - loud commands will not reach the soldier.

Active headphones will not respond to loud commands, and if the noise level there is continuously 140 dB and everyone is without headphones, then in half an hour everyone will be shell-shocked.

Quote: Michael Drabkin

Acoustic headphones cannot prevent contusion and hearing loss because the ear canal is not the only channel for sound energy, and this is especially true for the amplitude-frequency characteristics of explosions that cause contusion or hearing loss. The limiter may not be fast enough, and the attenuation of sound energy by the limiter is insufficient.

Of course, when a shell or aerial bomb explodes close by, especially with a thermobaric warhead, headphones may not help, but in this case a bulletproof vest may not help either, so what, should you run around the battlefield in shorts?

And when pressure penetrates through other “holes”, we will no longer be talking about hearing loss, but about rupture of internal organs.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

demonstration of the lack of elementary logic

It is you who demonstrate the lack of basic logic. Because the introduction of an additional element of protection, even a complex one, changes little in the tactics of a line fighter. The introduction of body armor did NOTHING change the tactics of either the infantry or even the Marine Corps, but it did reduce losses.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

Acoustic headphones cannot prevent concussion and hearing loss because the ear canal is not the only channel for sound energy, and this is especially true with the amplitude-frequency characteristics of explosions that cause concussion or hearing loss.

This is already outright stupidity. Of course they can, because they exclude the impact of the shock wave on the eardrum, up to a certain limit, of course.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

It is axiomatic - complex systems have lower reliability than simple ones. The entropy of complex systems is higher.

This is where your mistake lies. Headphones are not part of a complex system called a human. Headphones are just protection for a part of a complex system - hearing. With their introduction, human reliability increases. With their failure and exclusion, human reliability is reduced to its original value. Elementary logic.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

And the more intense the fighting, the louder the battle, and the louder the commands - the commanders do not remain silent, waiting out the noise of the battle.

What a shame... To imagine that a commander will shout over the explosion of a shell and even outshout it, that's beyond the pale. But if a soldier doesn't lose his hearing from a nearby explosion or shot, then the commander won't have to scream and pantomime AFTER the explosion.

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

Your mockery and offensive tone, unwillingness to understand or ask,

It is insulting to write pseudoscientific nonsense to justify the uselessness of a necessary thing and to bring in the doctrine of the actions of the US Army for this purpose.
Happy New Year!

[ycuce234-san]

To imagine that the commander will be able to shout down the explosion of a shell and even outshout it is beyond the pale.

In general, it can outshout. But another device would be needed - an infrasound megaphone, and the fighters have the appropriate microphones and electronics. The question of the practical benefit of this is open.
Perhaps good laryngophones for a radio station would be more practical.
In nature, whales and alligators communicate over tens of kilometers using infrasound.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: ycuce234-san

In general, it can outshout. But another device would be needed - an infrasound megaphone, and the fighters have the appropriate microphones and electronics. The question of the practical benefit of this is open.

Creative!
And the practical benefit is obvious, infrasound has a depressing effect on the psyche, so it’s just the thing to intimidate the enemy!
Although it is more reliable to extinguish with fire...

[stankow]

the limiter in the active earphone blocks the sound channel for any sound energy, including loud commands, shouts

It does not block, but limits, reduces to a normal level. And commands, since they are below the limit, even strengthen, thus improving communication with the commander and comrades.

[paul3390]

The limiter in the active earphone blocks the sound channel for any sound energy, including loud commands and shouts.

Well, if the commander yells at a volume exceeding 82 dB...

But in general - decent active headphones have two more very useful functions. This is amplification of quiet sounds, depending on how you set it up, and a jack for communication devices, the same walkie-talkie. And in the microphone - by the way, there is also noise reduction, which allows you to communicate more or less normally, without trying to shout over the noise around you, tearing your vocal cords.

[MamboPoa]

The limiter will be turned on more often and longer due to its own noise - loud commands will not reach the fighter.

So they only muffle loud sounds. On the contrary, they can amplify speech.

[APASUS]

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

Why doesn't the US use active headphones for Army and Marine infantry?

You still haven't answered. I understand that the infantry has options, but artillerymen, mortarmen, or those same soldiers with RPGs, shouldn't have options. A soldier with hearing will always be an order of magnitude more valuable than a deaf one.
But the artillerymen are really deaf, after half a year of fighting somewhere

[stankow]

Recoilless gun crews, like the SPG-9, have always had passive headphones. You can't do without them.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

In theory they were, in practice they weren't. I lost my hearing for 3 days or even a week.

[stankow]

My commander graduated from a motorized rifle school, he couldn't hear with his right ear. A gift from the SPG-9. The bad thing about it is that the gunner can't turn away during a shot. In field artillery, when the "gun" command is given, the crew can even stand with their backs to the sound wave, there's time. There's no jet stream back. In artillery, especially if there's no muzzle brake and the barrel is long, it's quite bearable. The center of propagation of the spherical sound wave is the muzzle. And it's meters ahead and up. There are practically no problems with the MLRS, there the fire and clods force you to stand far away or in the cabin. It's uncomfortable for mortar men, pressing themselves to the ground up to 10 times a minute... Although the mortar doesn't bang very loudly, but headphones are a top priority for them.

[SHOPPING MALL]

Quote: Michael Drabkin

If you look at the Israeli army - also a high-tech army - there are no active headphones there either, although infantry combat operations are certainly required by military doctrine...

They don't even have FPV drones, so that's a poor example, their ground forces haven't shown themselves in any way yet, especially considering the chthonic stupidity of their opponents.

[bk0010]

Quote: Mikhail Drabkin

then active headphones are a serious minus in the US Army

If the active headphones fail, he will only lose his advantage over our fighter. So you will agree that the infantryman should fight with a club - it is reliable and does not require ammunition.

[Denis Silaev]

What a bunch of minuses you got for a simple statement of the dialectical law of increasing entropy)). There are few people with higher education here, and not only everyone understands this.

[Konnick]

Active headphones are needed by artillerymen and mortarmen, which the author did not even mention, for others it is not so much. Author, have you tried to walk for a long time in headphones? The auricle is not a rudiment, but an organ for cooling the cerebral circulation, under the headphone the ear heats up. Not everyone is comfortable in headphones, only some "specimens at the Van Gogh exhibition" are comfortable. There is even a Russian proverb - .... and the ears are cold.

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Konnick

Not everyone is comfortable with headphones, only some "examples at the Van Gogh exhibition" are comfortable.

And the helmet, pardon me, the helm, weighs down the neck - down with helmets! (Irony)

[Konnick]

And the helmet, pardon me

And a helmet, pardon me, sometimes saves lives,

[Vladimir_2U]

Quote: Konnick

And a helmet, pardon me, sometimes saves lives,

And headphones at least provide hearing, and without hearing in the trenches even a helmet won’t help.

[Eugen alpine]

The auricle is an organ necessary for binaural determination of the direction of sound, and cerebral circulation does not require cooling. under the panties the balls also get hot, sad right?

[Konnick]

The auricle is an organ necessary for binaural determination of the direction of sound,

Actually, for BINAURAL sound detection you need two ears, but not the auricle.

[SHOPPING MALL]

Quote: Konnick

Active headphones are needed by artillerymen and mortarmen, which the author did not even mention, for others it is not so much. Author, have you tried to walk for a long time in headphones? The auricle is not a rudiment, but an organ for cooling the cerebral circulation, under the headphone the ear heats up. Not everyone is comfortable in headphones, only some "specimens at the Van Gogh exhibition" are comfortable. There is even a Russian proverb - .... and the ears are cold.

Have you tried shooting indoors without headphones, even with a pistol, let alone something more powerful? And not just once, but with several magazines?

Yes, it is uncomfortable to wear headphones for a long time - that is a fact, it is not only about overheating, but also about fogging - the ears get sweaty. The fighters smear them with various creams (if they have any).

But the presence of something does not always force you to use it; for example, on the street you can move the headphones to your neck or to your helmet, if it’s really unbearable, and put them on before entering a room.

In general, this is also a question - a huge number of manufacturers, but the ventilation problem has not been solved, at least I have not seen such headphones.

It's all because of the same thing - active headphones are mostly aimed at hunters and sportsmen, and they don't need to wear them all the time. You see, in the next iteration, they'll think about the military - the inertia of human thinking.

[Konnick]

Have you tried shooting indoors without headphones, even with a pistol, let alone something more powerful?

I tried and shot...just remember to open your mouth and there is no problem

[alexoff]

Many people go to work with headphones on and work there with headphones on and nothing, no one has ever gotten heatstroke.

[Konnick]

Many people go to work with headphones on and work there with headphones on and nothing, no one has ever gotten heatstroke

They have nothing to cool... I wrote to those who are comfortable

[alexoff]

Chess players at a tournament? Or are you one of the witnesses of "a person uses only 2% of his brain"? I have never heard of people getting heat stroke from the inside from headphones. I always thought that this could only happen to an astronaut or if you start running in a wetsuit in the Syrian desert

[Konnick]

I didn't write about heat stroke, I wrote that it's uncomfortable to wear headphones all the time, only some can, especially gifted ones

[alexoff]

The Kalash is also inconvenient to carry, it is heavy, and fighting is generally dangerous

[Konnick]

What's stopping you anyway, the helmet, the Kalashnikov, the eggs?

[alexoff]

It's not me that's bothering me, but you're hot here, it's uncomfortable there, people wear headphones at resorts, but at war everyone is so tender

[Motorist]

Quote: Konnick

Have you tried walking for a long time with headphones?

I walk for a long time at work, and I make the young ones do the same. In the tropics, of course, they leak in the car, but there they leak from everywhere. In a normal climate, there are no problems. And in the cold, the ears are better protected by hats. The new headphones press a little on the skull, but after a week or two, they are fine. I mainly use Peltor Optima-2.

[BAI]

1.

during the mobilization period, when soldiers were advised to purchase them themselves from all possible sources, rather than wait for them to be issued by the supply services of the RF Armed Forces – and this is indeed a reasonable decision.

This is a criminal decision that covers up the theft of the rear services.
2. It seems that modern smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy A32, use active headphone technology: it records wind noise perfectly, but the loud, sharp sounds of submunitions exploding from the Hymers are cut off, they are practically inaudible in the recording.

[South Ukrainian]

Tank crews and pilots were the first to receive hearing protection. If I'm not mistaken, the tank helmet has a device that actively protects the eardrum when a gun is fired.

[Vlad2012]

As far as I understand and remember, drivers of noisy equipment, artillerymen used passive headphones. Like "Peltors", of which we had a sea of ​​used ones for sale. Well, and banal construction earplugs were also used.

[expert]

With age and after certain surgical penetrations into the cranium, I really appreciated the importance of hearing.
I shoot only with active headphones and consider this an absolutely necessary part of a fighter’s equipment.

[shtatsov]

I would really like to see an article in a specialized military publication about the differences between active headphones and others, price-quality ratio. Recommendations for choosing. After all, users do not receive headphones from the warehouse, but buy them with their own money.
But apparently this topic of the article is not for such a serious publication as Military Review.

[Winnie76]

It's often noisy at work. I wanted to buy something with active noise cancellation. But the full-size version is hot, and earplugs, as I understand it, are not very effective

[Vlad2012]

Buy regular polyurethane earplugs. As an option with a bow. Quite effective and comfortable, you can even sleep in them.

[stankow]

Headphones in the army should be expected from other industries, for example, blacksmithing. And first of all, they are needed by artillerymen and mortarmen. And no earbuds, no wires. Only shells attached to the helmet.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

You again? Again, you are doing all you can to harm and prevent the establishment of the truth. I do not understand why participants from openly hostile countries and those openly engaged in sabotage are allowed here.

[stankow]

Sergey Aleksandrovich, are you kidding? What kind of saboteur am I? I am interested in technology and military affairs, so I am sharing my opinion.
P.S. You won't find a single post of mine against the RF Armed Forces, Supreme Command, Central Military District, CSTO, etc.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

What jokes are there, at first there were protests against the adoption of drones into service, like statements that one drone per battalion is enough. Then they had something against cluster munitions, now against active headphones.
You make me happy time after time.

[stankow]

You misunderstood me. One drone, but a reconnaissance one. Not for a battalion, but for an artillery division. I have nothing against cassette ones, I wrote that Russia has no obligations, so it uses them legally. I have nothing against active headphones either, on the contrary, I have experience with artillery fire, they are very necessary and useful. Otherwise, the gun commander is straining to command the deafened crew.

[SlavaSSL]

As an athlete, I use active headphones. They are very convenient, especially indoors (where even a 22LR muffles the sound to the point of ringing in the ears). Outdoors, anything more powerful than 9mm also muffles it very strongly, especially when you are not the one shooting but are nearby (a shotgun, a rifle with a compensator - it's just brutal). It is difficult to wear well-fitting headphones for several hours, but hearing is more expensive. And regarding the commands during shooting and cannonade, you can hear everything quite well. I understand that some frequencies are cut off there, and some are not. But this is in expensive headphones (3M Peltor, Sordin Supreme, etc.). In the army, they must be used, as well as tactical glasses. A soldier must be protected regardless of the cost.
P.S. I had one acquaintance, a pensioner, a former officer. He went through a couple of companies, bragged that he shot an RPG without earplugs. like it was muffling but he endured it (even though he had earplugs in his pocket) In general, the doctors then threw up their hands and with their characteristic cynicism they sent him to the wood grouse mating ground, like it was his own fault, the hearing loss was irreversible.

[Andy_nsk]

I understood that some frequencies are cut off there, and some are not.

Not quite so. Frequencies have nothing to do with it. They just limit the maximum signal level. Headphones limit the sound level that directly passes from the airspace into the ear canal. The sound passes through a microphone, an amplifier, and a speaker that reproduces the sound. Therefore, such a system can amplify weak signals (for example, commands or the sounds of other people's footsteps) and limit the level of strong signals (a shot, an explosion). They can be combined with radio communication. A wide frequency range is for music lovers, not necessary for a fighter. My opinion as an electronic engineer: active headphones are necessary and it is a big shortcoming of the Ministry of Defense and industry that they have not been implemented yet.

[Sergey Aleksandrovich]

Without a doubt, active headphones are a must-have item on the front lines. And many thanks to the author for drawing attention to this issue.
In addition, active headphones must be able to interface with drone detection and communication systems.
I noticed complaints that the headphones sweat. Indeed, it has become difficult to buy headphones with a fur frame, sellers offer only an uncomfortable sticky sponge. This looks like deliberate sabotage on the part of sellers. From the same series, leather gloves are now sold exclusively in yellow, or at best white, color, and which are unsuitable for the front line due to their color.
Apparently, some Chinese people show their dislike in this way.

[MamboPoa]

It was recommended to purchase them independently, rather than wait for them to be issued by the supply services of the Russian Armed Forces - and this is indeed a reasonable decision.

And what does a fighter use now besides the weapons from the regulations? Everyone is dressed in multicam, in fashionable helmets, unloading vests, body armor. And how much money was spent (and is being spent) on purchasing all this. The same Ratnik.