First, something like a powerful spotlight turns on. Then, a blinding light begins to flicker. This is from the footage of the tests of the latest state-of-the-art Russian tech — a blinding weapon. Its official full name is the Filin visual-optical interference device. They demonstrated how the device works for the first time. The Zvezda TV-channel published the video. Flashes of the Filin were shot in the Gulf of Finland. It's better not to look directly at the interference, it can cause disorientation and hallucinations. It's designed to hinder aiming. According to the designers, neither night-vision devices nor laser guidance systems can overcome the device.
The Russian fleet has already begun to use the Filin. In connection with it, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov is hitting the headlines of the Western media these days. The media and the Royal Navy closely followed the "vomit weapon" warship moving from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. That's what the British newspapers called the Filin. However, the system can be used not only for military purposes.
We'll learn from Ekaterina Grigorova how else it can be used and how it works.
- Good evening, Ekaterina.
- Good evening.
- Is there anything like it or is this a unique piece of tech?
- In the direct sense, no, there isn't. Although, of course, they're working on it.
So, the visual-optical interference device was developed as a weapon to protect surface ships and boats within the littoral zone at a distance of up to 1.2 miles. It operates at night. The drills showed that the effectiveness of an adversary is 3-5 times lower when it's used.
By the way, Russian military engineers have developed a new emitter. It'll allow the device's capacity to go up threefold and its range to go up by 1.8-2.4 miles. The device modulates low-frequency brightness fluctuations. In normal mode, Filin can work for up to 10 hours. And it can work for two hours at full power. Night vision tech, laser distance sensors, and targeting systems are powerless against it.
Night-vision devices consist of two parts — Optical and electronic. The optic part collects even extremely low signals reflected from objects with an illuminance of 0.0005 Lux. That's about 500 times less than moonlight. The electronic part boosts this signal to a level which the human eye can see. Then, imagine what happens when such a device detects a powerful flash pulse. The electronic part still increases its brightness by hundreds of times. As a result, a viewer affected by it receives a devastating blinding effect. It can be explained by the fact that practically every volunteer reported severe discomfort, including nausea and disorientation. What happens at the moment of impact? A powerful blow is dealt on the photoreceptors of the eye.
There are two types of photoreceptor cells in the eye retina. They are called rods and cones because of their form. Rods are responsible for night and peripheral vision. Cones are responsible for focal vision during the day, acuity, and color vision. So, at the moment of extreme light exposure, those cells activate a protective mechanism. Let's listen to the expert.
Vyacheslav Kurenkov, Ph.D. in medicine: "It's like looking at the sun. You'll see just a black spot in the center. You won't see anything behind it. A huge amount of special light enzymes is rapidly produced. That zone gets overloaded, and this produces the effect of blindness. It's temporary and it's gone within a few minutes".
Not only a person but equipment can be blinded and disoriented like this. In particular, it's possible to set a homing guided missile on the wrong track.
Viktor Litovkin, military expert for TASS: "This allows you to act upon the optic head of a guidance system of a missile flying toward you. There's a method where they program an optic warhead with an image of a target. Roughly speaking, it's a photograph of the target, its description, the type of target which the missile is to hit. The image of the target is sometimes programmed into the optic warhead of a missile guidance system. Thus, the missile can lose its target and miss it. It means that you can redirect it away".
In other countries, they used to use lasers to blind an adversary. The British were the first to use them to blind Argentinian pilots during the Falklands War. But in the mid-90s, laser systems affecting organs of sight were considered to be an inhumane weapon and prohibited. But the ban didn't extend to devices designed to disable warheads, infrared cameras, optics, and so on. They're the devices that producers often disguise full-fledged combat dazzlers as. Unlike laser devices, the Russian-made Filin disables an adversary only temporarily. It can't leave one permanently blind.
Sergey Zamozdra, theoretical physics associate professor: "They use lamps, not lasers but powerful lamps. They provide such a wide range. It even enables a ray to break through the fog. This is the main advantage compared to laser systems. It's also important that they use modulation. I haven't heard about this capability before."
So, Alexey, it's humane but insurmountable.
- Thanks. That was Ekaterina Grigorova on a weapon that's literally painful to look at.
