The hel observer in the Kiowas carried them around his neck. The carrying case is big, with spare batteries, lens cleaning kits, and so on, but the binos themselves aren't that big. I tested them on tanks and Lynx a few years back. I figured that anyone that gets issued binos, and is subject to any kind of vibration, should have been issued them. We got turned down, on the excuse that they weren't rugged enough for real men, er, I mean soldiers, but they were great for the Air Force.