Why does the millitary use red lights at night??

Question

some soldiers use red torches, Aircraft carriers use red flood lights to illuminate the runway at night, and the inside of most bombers and large cargo carrier planes are illuminated with red light during night missions, especially the inside loading zone and tanks use red lighting too. Why the red light colour???

Answer 1

I found a great in depth discussion on night vision and red lights here: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/qa/nightvision.htm

Answer 2

Red Light Night Vision

Answer 3

Red light dosent degrade a persons night vision like "white"light does it also cant be seen from as far away. However, combat medics have found that when treating casualties on the battle field at night using a red light makes it almost impossible to see blood. So now blue lights are becoming more popular for use in the military.

Answer 4

Not only will it keep your night vision better but red lights are difficult to see from a distance. The Navy uses the red lights on the outside most times but will use white lights as a deception lighting to make ship appear to be something else when viewed from the air

Answer 5

Why does the millitary use red lights at night??

Answer 6

The main reason red light is used at night is because red is a longer wave length and less energy so the light itself doesn't travel very far. It does help in night vision retention but only to the extent that it is not a "bright" or "white" light to trigger our rods vs cones response.

Answer 7

Red light as someone has already mentioned allows for your eyes not to lose their lesser ability to see in darkness like white light would in a night ops environment. Not only that but it also reminds and stands for caution in many cases. In medical situations green light is preferred since you can not so easily discern if and where someone is bleeding or treat wounds if you are using red light; with green light blood looks black. Operational situations specify red light only, or green light only or red/green only or NVG only for these reasons. Also white light messes with the microchip that NVGs use causing them to "white out" and the chip has to reset before you can see again which may take as long as several seconds. That chip can wear out its ability to reset allowing you to see and make an NVG temporarily useless. Red and Green light do not affect that chip like white light does. There is a very good example of the "white out" in that one Harrison Ford movie where the terrorists are using NVGs at night in his house.

Answer 8

The eyes adjust between red light and darkness better than "white" light...

Ever go from a brighly lit room into a darker room? Notice how the darker room seems totally dark until your eyes adjust? If you went from a red-lit room into a darker room, you wouldn't have as much of a problem.

Answer 9

the biology of your eye includes 2 basic types of optical receptors, rods and cones. The cones translate color imaging to your brain and the rods transfer B/W images as well as the color red. the rods serve as our night vision while the cones serve as our daytime vision. any other color light than red will trigger the cones into service and impair the quality of your night vision. furthermore it takes 20 minutes + for your rods to take over and shut down the cones from functioning. Red light is best for night sight.

Answer 10

Red is easy on the eyes at night, and like it has been said it is hard to see from a distance.