The Use of Strobing Light in Flashlights

We frequently get asked about flashlights that have the ability to strobe, so we thought we’d write a little article about them to point you in the right direction.

When used in a confrontational environment a strobing light can be a very effective tool to disorient an adversary.  Once you have successfully disoriented your opponent; now what?  Advance, shoot, retreat; what is the next logical move?  Although we don’t have specific answers for your particular situation; we think a little thought about how you plan to use a strobe light may be in order.  First a little background about how strobing came to be used as a disorienting tool.

Strobing was found to be useful as a disorienting tool when Navy Seals were training to defend ships and subs. When at sea, our naval vessels are the most formidable in the world; when those vessels are in port, they need to be defended like any other military asset.   They must be defended by humans; their great guns are useless against a small force when they are docked at port.  As part of their duties the Seals were tasked with defending different naval vessels that were in port and they quickly found that once below deck in a vessel with no lights, there were many places for adversaries to hide and that from a position of darkness; the attacker had a supreme advantage.  During one of their learning exercises, they used a strobe light for disorientating those participating in the exercises and they quickly found that strobing a light had amazing properties when deployed against an adversary and it quickly leveled the playing field between the hunter and the hunted.  From these exercises came the fundamentals of “Fighting with Light.”

In true Seal fashion, they developed tactics and strategies for defending our vast naval fleet from incursions and much of what they learned has been passed onto our civilian defenders as well; namely, our police officers.  Now, many years later, we as regular civilians have access to the same technology the military has been using for years.  With this feature now available to everyone; several questions arise in the civilian use of strobe in a flashlight.

Strobing is no magic bullet.  In a nutshell, a strobing light shone into the eyes of an adversary interferes with their depth perception.  During the few seconds that their depth perception is not working properly; you have the opportunity to act.  Understand this; if you are in a confrontational situation and you use a strobe to disorient an attacker; it is likely that the attacker will not run away screaming like a little girl, in fact, he may shoot in your direction or at least that of the light.  The key to using a strobe effectively is knowing what to expect and what you plan to do after you have deployed it.  You only get a few seconds, so pre-plan, train and spend them wisely.

 As civilians we all want to believe that if we are the victims of crime in our homes that we will confront the situation and “do what we have to do.”  The truth is, in a situation that is truly life and death, unless you have trained for the situation, trying to complete any task for which you have not trained will be extremely difficult if not impossible.  Simply, your autonomic nervous system kicks in and you do those tasks that you have trained yourself to do.  Many folks state “It seemed like I was watching myself in a movie” or “I was on remote control,” I never heard the gun go off,” and the list goes on.

Comments like those are heard over and over by experts who examine close quarter confrontations.  Now, we are not suggesting that a strobe has no use in the civilian market; but, what we are suggesting is if you decide to invest in a light with strobe for your own defense; we highly recommend you invest in some type of low light confrontation training.  Military operators and law enforcement officers spend hours upon hours training for situations that may or may not occur during their careers.  By adding a strobe to your arsenal of defensive tools; you are adding a tool that very well could save your life or the lives of your family members; on the other hand, without some type of training in its use; a strobe could be one of those tools that you just never really found a good use for.

Rick London in the managing partner of Tactical LEDs LLC and is a Patrol Sergeant in Pennsylvania.  Rick has over 18 years of experience as a police officer and has written numerous articles regarding the use of light as a defensive tool.  For more information, visit, www.tacticalleds.com.