ELITE soldiers and fighter pilots are undergoing surgery at Britain’s leading eye hospital to help them to see in the dark, The Times has learnt.

A leading surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London is operating on Special Forces soldiers and combat pilots to enhance their night vision. Soldiers joke that the operation is turning them into a new breed of “bionic” fighters.

“Quite frankly, they are,” said Julian Stevens, who has performed about 50 night vision treatments on military patients. “I would expect them to be in the top 1 or 2 per cent of human vision.”

This is the cutting edge of laser eye surgery and one test of the operation’s success is if soldiers can see two stars in the Plough that are so close together that they normally appear as one without a telescope.

Soldiers about to deploy to Iraq and other combat zones are given priority treatment and the operation has proved so successful that foreign air forces have started to send combat aviators to Moorfields for treatment.

“I treated one fighter pilot who lands on carriers,” Mr Stevens said yesterday. “He had good vision but his night landings were not good so he had treatment to enhance his night vision.” Without surgery the pilot would have been taken off combat duties, Mr Stevens added.

Soldiers often have laser surgery to correct poor eyesight because grime and lack of hygiene facilities make contact lenses impractical in war zones and many glasses break or fog up when servicemen are jumping out of aircraft, diving underwater or crawling through dirt and sand.

The Moorfields treatment involves removing irregularities from the periphery of the cornea as well as the centre. Some men with perfect day vision are opting to have the treatment simply to help them to see better in the dark.

Night vision treatment has become possible thanks to advances in laser eye surgery. The eye’s surface can be mapped in far greater detail and changes made with greater precision.

The basic laser eye operation involves sculpting the shape of the cornea to create a new curve that provides the best possible focus. The surgeon’s skill is critical: the better the shape, the better the vision.

Unlike the most common form of laser eye surgery, Lasik, the operation used on military personnel, Lasek, does not involve slicing a flap in the cornea because there is a slim chance that a hard blow could dislodge the flap. Boxers, police officers and those with a very active lifestyle are also advised to opt for Lasek.

The operation involves a thin layer of cells on the cornea being rolled back like a carpet rather than cut.

Mr Stevens said: “The eye is mapped in great detail with a laser scanner. The data is loaded into the computer on the laser and some anaesthetic drops are put on the surface of the eye.

“The surface cells are rolled up like a carpet and the laser pulses are applied. Then the surface cells are rolled back and a very thin medical contact lense is put in to protect the eye while it heals.” To improve night vision, extra work is done on the periphery of the cornea.

People are charged about £1,250 an eye for basic laser eye surgery. However, British soldiers and airmen are given a preferential rate for the night vision package. The Ministry of Defence is consulting Moorfields and military surgeons to see if they can be funded by the taxpayer. In the US, free basic eye surgery is used as an incentive to join up.

Complications in Britain are low but about 1 in 800 may end up with worse sight, Mr Stevens said.

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