sydney to hobart yacht race
shortly after the bad one a few years back, the Vic Police did a trial of NVG's for their Air Wing, i think this was mostly attributed to the fact that these poor buggers were flying out over bass strait in attrocious weather, plucking yachties that they could find from the mess below, & unlike their Navy counter parts in the sea-hawks without NVG's
having to bunny hop each wall of 'blacker than black' that loomed out of the darkness.
I believe that the current chief pilot is x- army & was a driving force behind the initiative, but am not in the know.
it seems we(helo community) tend to lose a lot of SAR birds at night, i thought it would have been a distinct advantage (& a no-brainer) to insist that Police & SAR be allowed the leverage of such great technology, that is readily available & no longer the singular domain of the military.
personally i have never flown on NVG, but have spent a great deal of time behind some of the older stuff tip-toeing through the 'J'