Why do Marine vehicles have lights?

[pawl]

Just a little something I wondered a while back and never came up with a good answer for.

 

Space Marines have vision far superior to that of an unaugmented human, and can see almost as well in the dark as in light. When wearing their helmet they have additional visual capabilities - zoom, IR/thermal, UV(?), weapon link etc. Why, then, would they have any need of spotlights on their vehicles?

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

A lot of their vehicles are not actually designed with a space marine crew in mind, they are STC-derived designs that were created for humans that they now use exclusively (Land Raider by the Emperor's decree) or almost exclusively (Rhino is a shared design). So yes, the Astartes crew probably don't need them, but the people building and maintaining them don't really dare to tamper with the design to remove these extraneous components for fear of messing up something big.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Also game used to rules for night fight and a light could ignore these effects.

[Sothalor]

Same reason spec-ops guys will be decked out with NV goggles and IR lasers/illuminators on their rifles yet still carry lights on their person and weapon.

 

Doesn't hurt to have more options when you need them.

[Brother Casman]

And I would imagine that the lights would be useful when interacting with/fighting alongside allied Imperial forces in the warzone.

[Oxydo]

Not to mention that NV/IR goggles tends to be pretty bad compared to regular light.

[MegaVolt87]

Could also be a safety thing, chapter serfs might need to move them about, having lights/ signals reduces accidents.

[Grotsmasha]

I'm going to provide an out of Universe answer, the same reason as Adam and Eve being depicted with belly buttons. Pretty much every vehicle known to man has lights, the design team probably never even considered that they wouldn't need them.

[Dracos]

Not to mention that NV/IR goggles tends to be pretty bad compared to regular light.

 

^this^ 

 

Sometimes you need to see in color . . . and UV/IR don't .

[Rik Lightstar]

Also, signal interference can interfere with scanners and electrical systems, a big lamp is pretty effective in those situations.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

 

 

Not to mention that NV/IR goggles tends to be pretty bad compared to regular light.

^this^

 

Sometimes you need to see in color . . . and UV/IR don't .

Seeing in IR at night is weird, you cannot see anything other than warm things, like people or vehicles, so there is no context, they appear to be almost hovering because you cannot see the terrain. It's quite disorientating.

[tychobi]

There is very little practical about space marine vehicle design. Sloped armor alone. The t34 outclasses a repulsor on many other features as well. Cannon reason was that the designs were enshrined in holy edict long ago. Like the qwerty keyboard. Now with primaris I assume that space magics requisite stat is not intelligence or wisdom and they just do not care about losses? Dunno

[Sky Potato]

Seeing in IR at night is weird, you cannot see anything other than warm things, like people or vehicles, so there is no context, they appear to be almost hovering because you cannot see the terrain. It's quite disorientating.

Having spent many pleasant nights professionally under both Thermal and Image Intensifying NVG - just no. Absolutely not true.

 

I suspect the lights are there as someone has already stated, because the model designers have never seen any vehicles without lights.

 

And even in universe, as someone else has stated, STC designs for non Astartes troops would have featured lights. And STCs are followed to the letter. Also, even with Astartes forces, they do operate with non-Astartes forces - so being able to turn on the lights on the Rhino so the backwater Planetary Defence Force don’t shoot their allies by mistake is possibly quite useful.

 

Plenty of reasons to have lights on the vehicles.

[Indefragable]

A flashlight is often more useful in the daytime than at night.

 

You need to go into a dark basement or check under something...you’re not gonna pop your NVGs just for that. Same with tunnels or looking into something in a vehicle.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

 

Seeing in IR at night is weird, you cannot see anything other than warm things, like people or vehicles, so there is no context, they appear to be almost hovering because you cannot see the terrain. It's quite disorientating.

Having spent many pleasant nights professionally under both Thermal and Image Intensifying NVG - just no. Absolutely not true.

 

I suspect the lights are there as someone has already stated, because the model designers have never seen any vehicles without lights.

 

And even in universe, as someone else has stated, STC designs for non Astartes troops would have featured lights. And STCs are followed to the letter. Also, even with Astartes forces, they do operate with non-Astartes forces - so being able to turn on the lights on the Rhino so the backwater Planetary Defence Force don’t shoot their allies by mistake is possibly quite useful.

 

Plenty of reasons to have lights on the vehicles.

Maybe the one we were lent was just rubbish?

[Debauchery101]

Almost all combat vehicles today and in 40k have normal lighting, infrared lighting and range finding.

For the example the rhino has the flood lights and in the same light mount are two smaller lights...most likely laser range finding and infrared.

 

At night flood lights help people firefights. When firing weapons in the dark it messes up your eyes and optics trying to adjust for the bright flashes. In a night firefight having a source of ambient light nearby reduces the range of adjustment for your equipment and eyes.

One time in Afghanistan we were attacked and being a machine gunner, I have the brightest flash. Clear skys and moonlight let's you see pretty far. Once you shoot, you lose most of your night vision. Even with an HD infrared optic. You cant see a whole lot behind your muzzle flash. I just shoot at their muzzle flashes. Which is fine because my job is more suppression than killing. I've also fired my weapon then moved for cover and busted my ass and slid down a hill because I was half blind

Edited December 25, 2020 by Debauchery101

[Sword Brother Adelard]

It wouldn't surprise me, additionally, if marine vehicles needed lights simply to drive on roads away from the front lines.

 

I think tanks stationed in West Germany had to be fully road legal because there was a spate of accidents from unlit tanks using the roads. The Imperium is oddly safety conscious in some odd aspects.

 

 

Although, I think modern tanks may have removable lighting kits for that purpose.

[Xenith]

Same reason they have indicators/turn signals. So they can follow traffic laws. 

[Bung]

It wouldn't surprise me, additionally, if marine vehicles needed lights simply to drive on roads away from the front lines.

 

I think tanks stationed in West Germany had to be fully road legal because there was a spate of accidents from unlit tanks using the roads. The Imperium is oddly safety conscious in some odd aspects.

 

 

Although, I think modern tanks may have removable lighting kits for that purpose.

They still have to like every other vehicle, if they want to drive in normal roads. ;)

[BitsHammer]

A lot of their vehicles are not actually designed with a space marine crew in mind, they are STC-derived designs that were created for humans that they now use exclusively (Land Raider by the Emperor's decree) or almost exclusively (Rhino is a shared design). So yes, the Astartes crew probably don't need them, but the people building and maintaining them don't really dare to tamper with the design to remove these extraneous components for fear of messing up something big.

To add to this: you can also blind your attackers at night with a sudden flash of lights giving the people behind the lights an advantage.

[Debauchery101]

I wish they'd bring back Dirge Casters or what we call them in our reality...LRADs....that negative LD modifier was cool

[Antarius]

It makes them look more "real" as vehicles, even if it doesn't strictly speaking make sense. But taking a sword to a futuristic gunfight makes even less sense (not to mention the ridiculously short ranges of those futuristic guns) - still, it looks cool and we just need it to visually signal "realness" on some level and reinforce the identity of the model. So while the sword and shield on a space knight or headlights on a space vehicle are probably "unrealistic", they still serve to make the whole look "real" to us. Edited December 25, 2020 by Antarius

[Iron Father Ferrum]

 

 

A lot of their vehicles are not actually designed with a space marine crew in mind, they are STC-derived designs that were created for humans that they now use exclusively (Land Raider by the Emperor's decree) or almost exclusively (Rhino is a shared design). So yes, the Astartes crew probably don't need them, but the people building and maintaining them don't really dare to tamper with the design to remove these extraneous components for fear of messing up something big.

To add to this: you can also blind your attackers at night with a sudden flash of lights giving the people behind the lights an advantage.

In theory, yes, but both the British and Germans tried this in WW2. The British tested the idea in Africa and found it didn't work; the Germans tried it in action and found the issues out the hard way. Problem is that despite being behind the lights, any lights bright enough to reveal oncoming enemies at a significant enough range are going to interfere with your forces' own vision. Look up the Grant/Lee Canal Defense Light for details on the British tests.

[Volt]

Y'all also seem to be forgetting that if you get a sufficiently powerful light source and shine it in somebody who's using IR/Thermal, you just blinded them unless they have some automated dimming effect. Thermal likewise is also fairly easy to dupe and hide from compared to the visible spectrum, and you can even manipulate radiation so as to present a different profile to IR cameras. There was some Brit company partnered with Americans a couple years ago developing cells which you could layer on top of vehicles that could dampen/manipulate radiation from a heat source, thus allowing you to make a vehicle look like an SUV or even a cow on IR, or to severely dampen the radiation to make it, not invisible, but quite less obvious (similar to a Polar Bear).

[RandomMarine]

I always just assumed they gave out non visible light that enhanced that helmet auto senses . Kinda like uv lamps and low light gear Edited December 26, 2020 by RandomMarine