Indian Army Receives Ballistic Helmets After Two Decades

The Indian Army has received modern ballistic helmets that can bear impact from a short range earlier this month.

The helmets are designed to bear the impact of 9 mm ammunition fired from a short range. This meets the global standard for protection among leading armed forces. They are also designed to be comfortable and can be integrated with communication and night-vision devices, Economic Times reported Wednesday.

Indian army had set February-end for trials for around Rs 1,000-crore (US$148.7 million) “light-weight modular jackets’’ for its soldiers.

Following completion of pre-trials in November 2016, samples of the bullet-proof jackets of five private-sector companies, including Kanpur-based MKU Private, Tata Advanced Materials, SM Group, Star Wire and ARP were sent for trials, The Financial Express had reported.

After cancelling several requests for proposal since 2011, the army s sending the jackets for trials based on the parameters specified in the RfP issued in April 2016.

“The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had accorded acceptance of necessity (AoN) in October 2009 for procurement of 3,53,765 bullet-proof jackets , including quantity 1,86,138, to be procured in the 11th Army Plan.

The request for proposal (RFP) was issued to 36 vendors on March 3 2011, but had to be retracted on Dec 8, 2011 to address issues in respect of conduct of trials,” Manohar Parrikar (then defense minister of India) had said in a statement in 2016.

Although the ordered helmets don't carry the communication device and other equipment such as night-vision device and camera, the company says the helmets could be improvised to include all these devices in future, ET quoted MKU as saying.

MKU manufactures combat helmets, ballistic shields, armor inserts, and overvests to armed personnel based on sixth generation Polyshield V6 armoring technology.