I know the Ta01 NSN was issued normally, but what about the regular ta01?  Thanks!

Anyone?  I have never seen one in the "wild"

bump

I do know Trijicon was originally self-funded but during the late 80s and early 90s, it started taking off and SOCOM finally asked them to create a special TA01nsn model. I'm not sure if the NSN means anything except for National Stock Number.

With that said, prior to SOCOM adopting it in 95, ACOGs been used in several other conflicts as mostly special forces optics. In the movie Black Hawk Down, you see everyone running around with M68 aimpoints. The truth is, at that point in history, they would have either used a Aimpoint 3000 series or a Trijicon ACOG TA01 model. You can see some pictures in the wild with it.

Checkout the history here: https://www.trijicon.com/na_en/company/history.php

Probably going to be impossible to find info on though. Most likely was used either by the Delta Force or SEAL teams and it's very, very doubtful they're hanging around ar15.com. Most likely you'll either find info by seeing random pictures or read some books from that era and hope they talk more about their gear.

I think I have seen pictures of them mounted on the carry handles of M-16-A2s in Desert Storm and the early years of Iraq before the M-4s were issued.

The NSN has backup iron sights on top.  The standard TA-01 doesn't.

Cool!

Yea, I have seen a ton of the Ta01 NSN models, but never the one without the iron sites  (Ta01) in US military service.