Russian surface warships would be equipped with new visual optical interference station, called the Filin (eagle-owl), to confuse the enemy with visual “hallucinations”.

The new Filin visual optical interference stations “blind” enemy troops and optoelectronic devices, such as night vision equipment, binocular glasses, and laser ranging devices with bright flares of light and created visual hallucinations to lend its troops a tactical advantage.

The technology is said to be similar to a strobe effect that results in immobilization to those within the beam, according to Lenta.ru.

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Low-frequency fluctuations of light cause temporary disorders of the organs of vision due to excitation of the optic nerves.

Human effects testing of the new visual optical interference stations took place last years, these showed promising results.

The device developed by the Integral plant was tested on volunteers who were supposed to carry out shooting from small arms at targets. During the tests with Filin, they said that “the target is not visible.”

“20 percent noted the hallucinogenic effect, described as” a spot of light floats before eyes, “and 45 percent complained of dizziness, nausea, signs of disorientation,” said in a report.

The device is able to suppress visual-optical and electro-optical surveillance and targets enemy monitoring devices with a high-intensity radial light, “dazzling” the enemy. This ensures the protection of ships and personnel as they perform tasks at sea or in a coastal zone.

In fact, it is a powerful non-lethal weapon, which allows ships to perform serious offensive and defensive tasks.

Test of new station at a distance of 1.5 km.

The stations were installed on the frigates “Admiral Gorshkov” and “Admiral Kasatonov”, which is currently undergoing factory testing. Two more ships of project 22350 will be equipped with the same equipment, they are already being built at the Severnaya Verf plant.