Weapon lights: what's with the filters?

3

.357SIG

New member
What is the reasoning behind putting that yellow-green colored filter on a weapon light? Does it really make a difference as opposed to using a white light?
 
Colored filters are used so you can't see the light from as far away as if you used a white light... cuts how far you can see it by about 1/3. Why? So you don't give away your position to EVERYONE around you. It's more "tactical." For the longest time the Army as used red filters for this purpose.

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CastleBravo
 
don't red filters also not affect night vision as much as white light?

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It ain't mah fault. did I do dat?
 
Mr. chink,

You are correct. Red is the visible portion of the light spectrum we are able to use which does not degrade our night vision much. This is why aircraft instrumentation lights are red. Some vechicle manufactures are starting to catch on and provide their products with red illumination on the instrument cluster.

Espresso
 
Ok for all you geniuses out there Red light has a longer wave length so to travels farther and retains it’s visibility the best. I believe Blue is the shortest so it travels the least distance before it "attenuates" and you can't see it. White has a sharper contrast so it doesn’t travel as far as red but is seen better. US Mil went to Blue as the Russian’s used red and on a battlefield it would make the people using red hostile and those using blue friendly.

Also red shows up like a beacon on night vision or infrared and blue is not as bad..
 
When I first started foxing in England we used red then they got wise to it so they went to blue. Now the poor fox doesn't have a chance because everyone has NV.
 
The military also uses red because it works better with topographical maps. With other colors it's hard to tell reddish brown contour lines, red roads, and blue streams apart.

[This message has been edited by MSGBN (edited December 15, 1999).]
 
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