Protecting the ATN Viper from bright light

Our paintball team are using ATN Viper headsets for night games and we have concerns about damage being done to the intensifier tubes by the opposing teams shining bright torches at us during games.

I am wondering if anyone can tell me if using a dark lens from a pair of polarized sunglasses in front of the viper's lens could help prevent this?

I notice that sunglass lenses appear completely clear in infrared, so theoretically they would let the infrared light through and wouldn't prevent the night vision from working, but should block the visible light to some degree.

Thoughts anyone?

Cheers.

Hi,

It's kind of like your eyes and the Sun. A quick glance at the Sun won't really cause harm, but if you stare at it you'll fry your retinas. The same principle goes for night vision and bright light sources. A quick flash from a flashlight won’t really do anything, but if they keep the beam on you, just move the night vision device.

As the polarized sunglass lenses go, in theory, they might help some, but you're still blocking a tremendous amount of the light that can enter the objective, so you will probably be reducing the usable range of the night vision by a sizeable margin.