According to The Other Wiki, iridium doesn't have significant use in those areas. It's more closely related to tungsten in usage, but isn't used in weapons due to cost.
Fight smart, not fair.The paint used on ironsights is tritium paint. Iridium is really only special for being the densest known material to Man. (And being damnably hard to find on this planet but easy to get on asteroids and other space rocks.)
Bear in mind that much of his more recent stuff is ghostwritten. Tom Clancy books being a byword for Shown Their Work fidelity is a thing of the past.
edited 15th Mar '11 3:52:55 PM by Iaculus
What's precedent ever done for us?Tom, Osmium is slightly denser. Iridium is the second densest material known to man.
Fight smart, not fair.That's a lot of bananas to shove down your throat.
EDIT: Wait, where this banana thing even come from? What do bananas have that protects against radiation? Anything at all?
MISREAD, ha.
edited 18th Mar '11 11:00:02 AM by Usht
The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.The radiation bananas emanate is used as a comparison in an effort to allay fears of nuclear power. Since just about everything radiates some radiation, something that people often don't understand.
[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.Unrelated: Coal is probably more likely to give you cancer!
An old report, but only one aspect of that power.

Oh sorry forgot to pothole
We must survive, all of us. The blood of a human for me, a cooked bird for you. Where is the difference?