980 nm ir lasers in the 5mw range can be had for <$25, are eye-safe, focus-able, and can be modulated to 38 khz to carry an ir codec like a normal LED. The power required is less than 150ma and they do not heat up at all (are not ON long enough). It should be possible to install multiple ir receivers (getting rid or worthless TBU) on board the hull and turret of an RC tank to pick up a short series of codec pulses (instead of the second long pulse on tamiya) shot in a tight beam of say 2 or 3 inches at 30 feet allowing precision firing with less chance of friendly fire, more life like vehicle silhouettes due to closer proximity of sensors on smaller vehicles, and longer ranges due to tighter more powerful beam.