The front view of a T-72 tank is 3.6 meters and you measure it as being 4 mils in your binoculars. What is the estimated distance to the tank?

• A. 3600 m
• B. 1800 m
• C. 900 m
• D. 600 m

Answer: (C)

Estimating distance from angular size using mils. When you know the real size of a target and measure how many mils it subtends, you can approximate distance with the rule: distance ≈ (actual size in meters × 1000) / angular size in mils.

Here, the tank’s front width is 3.6 meters and it subtends 4 mils. So the distance ≈ (3.6 × 1000) / 4 = 3600 / 4 = 900 meters.

This uses the small-angle idea that a small angle in radians is roughly the size divided by distance, combined with the mil system (6400 mils per circle), which leads to the practical formula above. A more exact trig calculation would give a similar result (about 918 m), but 900 m is the standard rounded estimate that matches the given options.