Obsolete weapons

Paul J. Adam
Built Up Areas, we aren't necessarily just fighting there) which means
a lot of voice communication: it's hard enough to hear shouted
commands from downstairs or around a corner as is, without ear plugs
in place. So, you risk ringing ears and partial HF deafness later on,
in order to keep control of your fireteam during the action.

Why on Earth aren't active (electronic) ear mufflers used
nowadays? Like many hunters and shooters have done for
quite some time.

Such mufflers are rather expensive, of course, and I can
understand that poor armies, resistance fighters and such
can't afford them. But to hi-tech armies that actually are
currently engaged in FIBUA, like the US one, damaging the
hearing of its soldiers seems much less affordable than
getting another piece of fancy kit.

And it's not just about hearing protection. A soldier
with his ears ringing after eg fireing his weapon within
a confined space without hearing protection, will have
immediately, but temporarily, much degraded hearing. And
a soldier subject to a very loud noise, like a nearby
explosion, may loose his hearing immediately and completely
for some time. Thus, I'd assume that active mufflers would
enhance the ability to sustain FIBUA, much for the same
reasons that non-active hearing protection, like simple
plugs, might impair the ability to do FIBUA, at least initially,
ie before the soldiers being subject to damaging noise levels.

Moreover, shouldn't practically all modern military helmets
be designed to be compatible with low-profile ear cups,
and vice versa? So why not use them?

Not only do electronic ear mufflers allow non-damaging
sounds to pass, but the amplification can be adjusted, so
that quiet sounds are enhanced. Coupled to a directonal
microphone (and especially with a parabolic antenna), even
very quiet sounds can be heard over considerable distances,
which could sometimes, in special circumstances, be useful.

Plugging one's radio output to the ear muffs, the voice
com will be much easier to hear in a noisy environment, as
the mufflers can be used to cut the background noise. In a
quiet environment, stealthiness might improve slightly too,
as even less received voice com would escape the muffs than
a simple unshielded head-set.

Or is there somehting that I miss? Is, after all, some
essential information lost when the sound passes through
the artificial, but hopefully hi-fi, electronics before
reaching the ear? The muffs do conserve stereophonic
(directional) info of course, but is there eg problems
due to the disparity between the artificial sound from
the muffs vs the sound propagating through the bones?
That one can't adapt to with training?