Apparel Online India Magazine February 1st Issue 2019 | Page 41

INDUSTRY LIVE
First-ever Indian standard on Bullet Resistant
Jackets approved by BIS
The first-ever Indian Standard
(IS) on Bullet Resistant Jackets,
for protection against small
arms and ammunition for use
in defence, paramilitary and
police forces, has been released.
After a long time, India will
have its own Standard for
Bullet Proof Jackets (BPJ):
IS17051:2018, which prescribes
minimum requirements of
bulletproof jackets against
small arms and their evaluation
procedures. The standard has
been approved by Bureau of
Indian Standards (BIS) after a
draft finalised by the Textiles
Protective Clothing Sectional
Committee was approved
by the Textile Divisional
Council. Thus, the adoption
of the standard is treated
as a milestone in setting
up minimum performance
requirements of bullet resistant
jackets and screening the
supply so that only acceptable
quality reaches the wearer. The
standards are formed keeping
in mind the Indian needs. Until
now, the bulletproof jackets and
helmets provided to the Indian
security forces were based on the
NIJ III+ Standard, which refers
to ballistic resistance of a body
armour. The main challenge
faced is reducing the weight of
the jacket from 10.5 kg to 6 kg
matching the scientific criteria.
Moreover, Indian Standard
for bullet resistant jackets is
expected to help in accelerating
the procurement process by the
user agencies and in testing of
materials. It is mandatory that
all standards should be adopted
in all procurement orders of the
security forces.
“Our work begins now as we
have the indigenous capacity to
go to the next level, i.e. use of
lighter material for jackets. The
standard could become a base to
supply the jackets to south-east
Asia where the requirements
are similar to that of India’s,”
said Surina Rajan, Director
General, Bureau of Indian
Standards. Dr G Satheesh
Reddy, Secretary, Department
of Defence R&D and Chairman,
DRDO pointed out that the new
standards may not be uniform for
different security forces operating
in different terrains, thus, the
standards need to be dynamic
which can be changed with
different operating conditions.
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