The AI Tornado is easily the most effect grenade on the market and it’ll clear a fair sized room of bad guys quite easily, but there are some cases where a frag grenade is not appropriate. If there are hostages or sensitive equipment which need to be retrieved, the attacking squad has no choice but to pile into the room as fast as possible to overwhelm the enemy. What is needed is a flashbang type device which unfortunately does not exist, at least for airsoft. I’ve been using the Thumper TG6 but at ~$5 a pop, it can get pretty expensive to run continuously.
Airsoft Innovations has come to the rescue with its Distraction Device kit. For around the price of a bag of BBs, you can pick up the DD kit which converts the Tornado from a frag grenade to a distraction device.
Included in the package is the burst ring, 48 burst discs and the instruction manual. Converting the Tornado to and from grenade to distraction device takes about 30 seconds. If you run into difficulty the instructions sheet will guide you; it’s well written and easy to follow. In any case we’ll go through converting the tornado to a distraction device here.
First, take off the valve cover from the bottom and then pop off the safety plug with your thumb – hold the cap in your hands with the side with words facing you, then press on the rubber plug.
Once that’s done, clean the inside of your valve cover of any dirt, then take a burst disk and tape it into the center of the cap. Now we need to install the burst ring, which will take a few seconds…
Put the burst ring into the circular opening with the O ring sitting in the upward position (if the bottom of the grenade is facing you, you should be able to see the burst ring O ring). Once that’s done, insert the pin, gas up the Tornado, screw in the valve cover and you’re set. You now have a distraction device, which is as close as you can get to a flashbang. To use the Tornado simply pull the pin, throw it into the room and follow in as it goes off.
According to AI, the Tornado generates ~120dB of noise at 3′. While I have no tools to measure this, it is on par with the noise the Thumper makes when I set both off in my condo (wife absolutely loved me testing it over the weekend). With 50 burst discs going for $4.95US from AI, the Tornado distraction device costs pennies to run, making it much cheaper than the Thumper which comes in at ~$5 a shot.
Having used and been on the receiving end of the Tornado distraction device at TTAC3 I can say you never know what to expect when a Tornado is tossed into a room. If it’s a frag, you’ll be hit in a few seconds. If it’s in flash bang mode while you’re focusing on the grenade, you’ll be shot by the swarm of people entering the room.
Yeah it works pretty darn well. :)
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