Ballistics facility to come up in Hyderabad

Former Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare would have perhaps been alive today had the bullet-proof vest and helmet he was wearing on the fateful terror night of November 26, 2008, was tested and confirmed to the international standards. 

The opening up of DuPont knowledge centre on Thursday in Shameerpet here would provide the armed forces, law enforcement and other security agencies to test the effectiveness of the protection gear they wear.

The state-of-the-art, world class DuPont ballistics facility would work in tandem with the other government-owned research facilities in the country. It is expected to help develop solutions that can be tested under local conditions and against local ammunition. DuPont has two more testing units - one in Brazil and the other in Switzerland.

“We are here to protect people who protect us,” Rajeev Vaidya, the company’s South Asia President said after launching the facility.  DuPont, besides having the facility to test 600 tonne helmet press and stab testing equipment, can also test helmets made out of DuPont’s Kevlar material and validate their performance at its application development centre.

“The testing range here can measure velocity of a 9 mm bullet and determine the trauma it would cause on hitting the target, the soldier or police officer,” said Yati Waghray, Technology Leader, India and Asean.

The Indian forces were mostly looking for low weight and low trauma vests and helmets, Yeti added saying that DuPont was not a competitor but would be working with agencies like DRDO or Ordnance factories for testing the protective gear for the forces.

DuPont, which has developed the stab testing facility based on its experience in Europe, hopes that a facility in India will result in innovations to suit local needs. “The stab testing facility here can simulate a 24 Joule energy stab on a fake human torso,” Yeti said. 

Capable

He said that the Kevlar fabric is capable of protecting the forces from multi threat perception. DuPont, which has achieved sales of $ 38 billion in 2011, says that its protection technologies wing earned 10 per cent of last year’s sales.