Iron sights

Iron sights are aiming aids built into most firearms. Common to all designs is a front element near the muzzle opening, and a rear element at the rear of the barrel or above the weapon's action.

Two common classes of sights include open sights, which use a notch at the rear, and aperture sights, where the user looks through a ring or opening in a rear panel. Leaf sights are another type that feature graduated markings along a folding panel at the rear to assist with long-range targeting.

Earlier games
From Battlefield 1942 through to Vietnam, many weapons used iron sights, with the notable exception of scout/sniper rifles althiugh they were purely visual.

In Battlefield 2 and 2142, Many weapons ranging from carbines to pistols were equipped with iron sights. Other weapons were equipped with short-range sights or long-range scopes.

In Battlefield Bad Company 2 all of the Engineer's,Assault, and Medic's weapons (excluding the MG36 and Shotguns) used iron sights. Aiming down the iron sights increases the player's accuracy compared to hipfire. The player can opt to use a 4x Optical Sight or a Red Dot Sight on certain weapons instead.

Battlefield 3
Along with the wide variety of sights and scopes, all weapons in Battlefield 3 can be used with iron sights. Using the iron sights gives the shortest aim down sight (ADS) time, with only hipfire offering faster response. Equipping a sight or scope increases the time needed to ADS.