hallucination shield filin light fun
© YouTube / Russia’s Defense Ministry
It not only provides protection in close quarters combat, but it can also make the enemy hallucinate. Russian special forces using an armored shield with a state-of-the-art light suppression system have been caught on video.

In mid-March, the arrival of a Russian warship with a Filin light gun onboard near British shores caused a meltdown in the UK tabloids. The papers shocked their readers with details of the device's hallucination and vomit-inducing effects, forgetting to mention that the system was designed for defense purposes, and didn't cause irreversible damage to eyesight.

Now, it turns out that similar suppression means, but of a smaller scale, can be also be successfully employed by the troops during combat.

The footage from the Mulino training ground in Nizhny Novgorod, released by the Defense Ministry, showed the Spetsnaz engineering unit storming a building held by the simulated terrorists.

One of the troops is seen carrying a futuristic-looking armored shield, fitted with bright flashing lights, during the op.

The military said the intervals between the flashes were "carefully calculated to blind the potential enemy, disorient him or even make him hallucinate."