Just a little while ago, I saw a bit on the training the military (82nd Airborne?) is going through in order to prepar for "cave combat," as the reporter called it.

First of all, I was extremely impressed with their night vision capability.  It was pitch black in the simulated cave, but when they popped on their equipment it looked bright as day.

So here are some questions for those of you in the know:

1)  What is it that they use to provide the illumination for their NVD to pick up?  Seems like a damn flashlight, only it's invisible to the naked eye.  If I'm not mistaken, it should be some sort of infra-red light, correct?

2)  What's the name of the device that produced the "laser dot?"  The clip showed the guy illuminating his target, while projecting this laser dot.

3)  I looked up Blueline Gear, I think, and they have an NVD that looks just like the gear the guys on the clip had.  4K for the top model and 2K for the model without the "gain control" function.  How important is this gain control feature?

Now, if I start saving...

Correct on #1.

On #2, it's probably an IR laser, but i don't know the name of the device.

There is a forum on nightvision devices, but i don't have the address.

It is IR they use to illuminate with, it is necessary in DARK places like a closed room or a cave.Unaided, in these conditions NVDs are useless. The IR is nice, but if the enemy has NVDs it looks like a spotlight to them also.
The aiming lasers are PAQ-4Cs or PEQ-2s usually. The PAQ 4 is a IR laser pointer only while the PEQ 2 has an aiming laser as well as an IR spotlight with adjustable brightness.  Being IR, without NVDs, both are worthless.