Just a thought, and looking for coments on, an EMP event knocking out electronic weapon sights --i.e. EOTechs, Aimpoints, S&B short dots, etc. Iron sights may very well rule after all.
Don't quote me on this but some electronic sights may survive. EMP works by inducing a voltage in the circuitry. Some circuitry are more resistant to emp than others. The more simple electronic sights with NO ic's (integrated circuits) but are rather using analog circuitry may survive. IC's are low voltage and are very sensitive to voltage spikes. This is just a wild guess though so don't bank on it. I just think the more simple units will survive. But matters little even if they survive. It isn't going to last long for the batteries to run out and you can't find new ones.
As Hartage said, if the system is on and working when the EMP hits, it is liable to sustain damage, if the system is off, most likely, it won't sustain damage, if the batteries are removed, there should be no reason it will sustain any damage. That was the rules for radios, turn them off prior to a nuke strike and they will do fine.
Well yes and no. You are used to working with military radios and electronic equiptment that fcc rules do not apply to. Civilian units are by law NOT ALLOWED to have shielding that keeps signals out. They MUST accept any signals (interferance, noise) directed at them. There are some shielding in civilian units but it is usually to keep RF (radio frequency) noise IN as digital circuits are very noisy (throws out a lot of RF). Nuclear emp will send out a very broadband pulse that extends from radio frequency to well beyond microwave (visible light etc). That pulse will induce a voltage in circuits no matter if the battery is connected or not unit on or not. If the shielding is inadequate and especialy if it contains IC's it will kill it. If it is an analog circuit (not as succeptible to voltage spikes as IC's ) it may survive. Military units as I've mentioned before do not have to comply with civilian fcc rules. Their electronics are allowed to be shielded up the wazzoo and usually are. Even then they can still die. Turning them off, taking the batteries out will further increase it's survivability. Just don't expect civilian units to be able to survive as well. You can thank our wonderfull fcc for that. Can you imagine ? Forcing manufacturers to build an INFERIOR unit (must accept interferance) by law. It's like forcing car manufacturers to build an unreliable car by law.