One thing that we all want to prevent at all times, whether playing airsoft or in real world operations, is friendly fire. In the heat of a firefight, it happens, committing the mistake at shooting a team mater, and identification systems are in place usually in the form of uniforms ever since warfare became more sophisticated and more destructive. While uniforms do their job pretty well, improvements in camouflage patterns or colour swatches to allow any soldier to blend in an environment, and worsened by lowlight conditions, would make it hard nowadays to identify friendlies. This more for the case of support units such as those from the air.

In recent years, IR or light strobes are mounted on soldiers to serve as good identifiers. Chem lights, help mark paths or provide lighting in the dark, but this would mean carrying two devices. Or for all in one systems, this means more batteries to carry.

To help achieve the same but lowering the weight for operators carrying such devices, Brite-Strike developed the All Purpose Adhesive Light Strip (APALS) as a long lasting, reliable, combat identifier. These are disposable light strips that can be pasted on any part of the body or any wall, post, to provide some lighting and these last for 35 hours. These can be turned to provide either always on, fast or slow strobes, thus more versatile than chemlights.

Since these are strips, Brite-Strike claims that you can fit a hundered of these in one BDU pocket, beating chemlights as you can only fit much in your straps and pockets. The APALS are hermetically sealed and can work in various conditions --- completely submersible and dustproof. Furthemore, once turned on, these can be seen from 1/4 of a mile. The strips light colours are white, red, blue, amber, and green.

There are two versions of the APALS: the APALS and IR-APALS, with the latter specifically made for military and law enforcement organisations and both are for tactical purposes. There is a civilian version called APALS-AIR for outdoors people and general hi-visibility, useful for joggers, bikers, and emergency response people.

In large airsoft games, the APALS are useful. Organizers can issue the APALS along light colours for players, marshals, and medics to properly identify groups. Since a 100 pack costs US$100.00, the unit cost will be around US$1.00 each. Night games might remove some stealth movements of players when wearing the light strips, but in airsoft, safety is much more paramount the stealth.

One thing that we caution when using the APALS for airsoft games and real world tactical situations: don't paste it on your forehead and become a big attractive target yourself.