a soldier may apply to their weapon for aide in visibility when in dark locations where night vision goggles would be unnecessary or too bulky. A flashlight can easily be attached to a weapon's rail system or a special mount if rails are not available.
"A Tactical Light lights up the dark environments with white light. In close quarters the Tactical Light can also disorient and temporarily blind others, but can also reveal your position."
— Battlelog description
In Battlefield 3, the Tactical Flashlight is an attachment that can be applied to weapons such as carbines and shotguns and has the ability to be toggled on or off. In the singleplayer campaign, the tactical flashlight is seen on the player's M4A1 in the "Fault Line" gameplay trailers. It is used during the segment where Ssgt. Blackburn is ordered to find and defuse a suspected IED.
In multiplayer, the tactical flashlight is seen attached to the M4A1 and the AKS-74u, as seen in the Operation Métro multiplayer trailer. During a live interview on UStream, one of the DICE members stated the flashlight will have the ability to temporarily distort enemies' vision if they looked at it, making it more difficult to return fire on their attacker, but not entirely impossible. The attachment is able to be applied to many weapons including carbines, machine guns, shotguns, and some pistols.
Looking directly at a tactical flashlight from a few feet away, a player will become temporarily stunned and it becomes harder to move and hear. The downside is that it reveals the user's position.
The flashlight can be toggled on and off, can blind teammates and changes direction according to the orientation of the weapon - when the gun is lowered while sprinting, the flashlight will still shine to the left.
Tactical Flashlight on an M4A1 as seen in Fault Line trailer.
A Tactical Flashlight mounted on the AKS-74u.
The player's view when a flashlight is flashed towards the player.