The same article also says that BF3 will be the first Battlefield where you will be able to fly "modern jets".
Having never been shot at by a sniper myself, is the effect (or the principle/idea of the effect) realistic at all?
Not sure if it's realistic, but it definitely is an effective way of having enemy fire be of a suppressing nature. In RO, you can't even aim properly while bullets are whizzing past you, since your vision is too blurred. The same effect happens when artillery or other explosives are going off near the player.