What Is Infrared Vehicle Lighting and How Does It Work?
Infrared vehicle lighting is the set of lamps on a military vehicle that emit near-infrared (NIR) light instead of visible light. The unaided eye sees little or nothing. A driver wearing image-intensifying night vision goggles sees the ground ahead, the vehicle in front and its braking signal.
The lamps exist because goggles amplify the light that is already there, and on an overcast, moonless night there may not be enough. This article explains how the lamps work with Gen 2 and Gen 3 tubes, which lamps are fitted, how they are switched alongside visible tactical lighting, and where their limits lie.
How IR Lamps Work with Night Vision Goggles
An image intensifier tube responds to a wider band than the human eye. The eye is sensitive from about 400 nm to 700 nm. Second generation tubes respond from about 400 nm to about 900 nm, and third generation tubes from about 600 nm to a little over 900 nm. Light between the red limit of vision and about 900 nm is therefore seen by the goggles and not by the eye, and that gap is where an IR lamp places its output.
US Army night vision driver training states that goggle performance is directly related to the amount of available light, such as starlight and moonlight. An IR lamp supplies the missing light. At the front, a flood lamp lights the ground and the goggles see the near-infrared light it reflects. At the rear, the following driver looks straight at the lamp, which marks the vehicle ahead.
In a current lamp the emitter is normally an LED. How the diode itself produces near-infrared light is covered in our article on infrared LED lighting; this article deals with the lamps as part of the vehicle.
Tactical position, night vision sub-position
Emits in the near infrared, typically 770 to 940 nm
Reflects the forward flood; rear lamps are seen directly
Gen 2 about 400 to 900 nm, Gen 3 about 600 to just over 900 nm
Sees the route through a 40 degree field of view
Which IR Lamps a Military Vehicle Carries
IR vehicle lights cover the same jobs as the visible set: light the route, mark the vehicle and signal braking. The difference is who can see them. The table shows the usual positions, with examples from our own range.
| Lamp | What it does for a driver on goggles | Example output |
|---|---|---|
| Forward flood or driving light | Lights the ground in front of the vehicle when starlight and moonlight are too weak for a clear image | 770 to 840 nm, visibility 75 to 100 metres (Infrared Driving Light) |
| IR headlamp, high and low beam | Gives a dipped and a longer-reaching beam from the headlamp position | Low beam 940 nm, high beam 850 nm (Infrared Vehicle Headlight) |
| Rear tail and brake marker | Shows the following driver where the vehicle ahead is and when it brakes | 850 to 940 nm (Infrared Convoy Brake Light); 850 nm or 940 nm, dual mode tail and brake (Infrared Tail Light) |
| Identification beacon | Marks the vehicle as friendly to aircrew, overwatch and other vehicles using night vision | 850 nm or 940 nm, pre-programmed flash pattern, magnetic base (IR Beacon) |
A complete fit pairs forward and rear lamps. IR driving lights at the front let the driver see the route; an infrared convoy brake light at the rear lets the next vehicle in the column keep its distance. Infrared headlights with separate high and low beams replace a flood lamp where the vehicle needs reach as well as width.
Wavelength and Visible Signature
Most vehicle IR lamps emit somewhere between 770 nm and 940 nm, and where a lamp sits in that band is a trade between how bright it looks in the goggles and how much it shows to the eye.
The boundary of vision is not sharp. ICNIRP puts visible radiation at 380 to 780 nm, so a lamp whose output starts at 770 nm overlaps the red limit, and an 850 nm emitter can be seen as a dull red point of light at close range. In return, 850 nm falls well inside the response of both Gen 2 and Gen 3 tubes. At 940 nm there is no visible glow, but the output sits at the edge of the tube response, so the same lamp looks dimmer through the goggles and needs more power for an equal image.
Neither choice is wrong. Choose the shorter wavelength where the image matters most, for example forward lighting on a dark night, and 940 nm where any glow at the lamp is unacceptable. Some lamps use both: our IR headlamp puts 850 nm on the high beam and 940 nm on the low beam.
LED Emitters and Filtered Lamps
Older tactical vehicles produced infrared light from incandescent lamps. The common headlamp was an incandescent sealed beam, and IR illumination was often obtained by placing a blackout filter or lens over an incandescent lamp. That approach has three drawbacks. It is inefficient, because the lamp still produces visible light and only a small part of its output passes the filter as IR. It is difficult to block all visible light. And where the filter has to be moved into place mechanically, changing between visible and infrared driving takes time.
An IR LED generates its output in the near infrared directly, so the lamp does not have to throw most of its energy away, and it is switched electrically like any other lamp. A filter can still play a part: some LED lamps carry an integrated IR filter to trim the residual visible light further, which is how our convoy brake light keeps its visible signature to a minimum.
IR Lamps and the Tactical Light Switch
IR lamps are not a separate system. They are one mode of the vehicle’s tactical lighting, selected from the same switch as the visible lamps used for blackout lighting.
The Czech defence standard ČOS 254001 (2nd edition, change 2, 2025) shows how this is organised. It implements STANAG 4381 Ed. 2, Blackout Lighting Systems for Tactical Land Vehicles, and AEP-4381(A)(1). It requires a multi-position switch within the driver’s reach with three basic positions: normal exterior lighting, all exterior lighting off, and tactical exterior lighting. The tactical position must have a sub-position for driving with a night vision device, in which only the lighting permitted for that purpose can be switched on. A mechanical lock must prevent accidental switching from tactical to normal lighting.
The same standard treats infrared in the visible tactical lamps in the opposite way. Their peak radiation between 700 nm and 1,200 nm may be no more than one per cent of their peak in the visible band, so that they are safe against observation with infrared devices. A visible tactical lamp is designed to stay dark in the infrared; an IR lamp is designed to emit there. The switch position therefore decides which signature the vehicle shows.
In practice, wire the IR lamps so that they light only in the position selected for night vision driving, with the rear brake function following the brake circuit. Interlocks are common: in one published tactical headlamp design, the white headlamps cannot be switched on while the infrared switch is on, and switching to infrared turns the white lamps off automatically.
Detection Risk and Operating Limits
Infrared light is covert to the unaided eye, not to night vision. US Army training warns that an IR illuminator makes the goggles an active system that can be detected by the threat’s night vision devices. Digital night vision adds a second route, because camera sensors developed for near-infrared sensitivity can image the same light. Treat every IR lamp as visible to an equipped opponent, and switch it off when ambient light is enough.
The lamps also leave the goggles’ own limits in place. The same training gives a field of view of 40 degrees through the goggles against 200 degrees unaided, best depth perception between 20 and 500 feet (about 6 to 150 metres), and reduced performance in rain, haze, fog, snow and smoke. An IR lamp adds light; it does not remove the obscurant or widen the view. Safe speed is still set by the distance at which the driver can detect a hazard.
Finally, visible lamps degrade the goggle image. The Army’s guidance is that compatibility is best achieved by eliminating all interior and exterior vehicle lighting, so visible lamps should be off whenever the crew drives on IR.
Specifying IR Vehicle Lights
Most specification problems with IR lighting come from treating the lamps on their own rather than as part of the vehicle, the goggles and the unit’s light discipline. Settle these points first.
The night vision devices the drivers use (Gen 2, Gen 3 or digital), and a trial of the lamp with those devices.
The wavelength: image brightness in the goggles against the faint red point a shorter wavelength shows at close range.
The switch position that lights each IR lamp, and any interlock with the white and visible tactical lamps.
Forward and rear coverage: route lighting for the driver and a marker and brake signal for the vehicle behind.
The vehicle supply voltage and the EMC standard the platform calls up, since the lamps share power with radios.
The unit’s light discipline orders: when IR may be used, given that an opponent with night vision can see it.
Our infrared lights range covers forward, rear and identification lamps for tactical vehicles, and where a platform needs a different wavelength, connector or housing we build to specification.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. IR lamps serve only crews who are wearing night vision goggles. A driver without goggles, a ground guide on foot or a vehicle in the column without night vision sees nothing from them, so those situations still need the visible blackout markers and drive lamp. Most tactical vehicles therefore carry both, selected from different positions of the same switch, and the crew uses whichever set the situation and the light discipline orders call for.
It depends on the sensor. Standard CMOS image sensors are designed mainly for visible light, fall off sharply in sensitivity beyond about 800 nm and respond very poorly at 940 nm. Sensors developed for near-infrared imaging do much better. If a fleet mixes digital devices with image intensifiers, test the lamp with each device type, and expect an 850 nm lamp to give a brighter digital image than a 940 nm one.
No. Thermal imagers work in the long-wave infrared, around 8 to 14 micrometres, and detect the heat that objects emit themselves. They need no illumination and do not use the near-infrared light a vehicle IR lamp produces. The lamps are for image intensifiers and NIR-sensitive cameras only, and a thermal sight is not the tool for checking whether an IR lamp is working.