'Optical munitions' are optical instruments that are used in war - more specifically, they are optical instruments associated with weapons.

During the Second World War, the Optical Munitions Panel produced the following items:

• angle of sight instruments;
• submarine and tank periscopes;
• elevation and bearing telescopes;
• directors;
• range finders;
• ring sight and signalling telescopes;
• telescopic rifle sights;
• parabolic reflectors;
• stereoscopes;
• sextants;
• camera lenses and prisms;
• spirit and optical levels;
• theodolites;
• collimators;
• lensatic sights;
• auxilliary telescopes;
• glide path indicators;
• jungle sights; and
• reconnaissance and flash spotting instruments.

The Optical Munitions Panel also coordinated the reconditioning of over 17,000 binoculars at various locations around Australia. Reconditioning involved the replacement of lenses with more powerful optics, and many of these binoculars were donated to the war effort by the public. (For difficulties associated with the use of optical instruments in the tropics and how the problems were solved, see the Tropic Proofing Committee.)

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