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Table of Contents
S/L
No
1.

Acknowledgement

02

2.

Abstract

03

3.
4.

Introduction
Historical Background
a. Pre-Twentieth century
b. Twentieth century

04

5.

Criteria for modern military textile materials

08

6.

Ballistic Protection

Focal/ Mooting Points

Page No

5-6
6-7

a Textile Fibers for Ballistic Protection

b. Kevlar
c. Twaron
d. Spectra
e. DSM Dyneema

08
09
09
09
09

7.

Environmental Protection
a. Thermal Protection
b. Chemical Protection
c. Biological protection

10
11
11
11

8.

9.

Impact Protection of Textile

a. Stab & Ballistic Protection
b. Flames, Heat & Flash Protection
c. Decontamination Technology
Camouflage Concealment & Deception

12
12-13
13
13
14-17

10.

Conclusion

18

11.

References:

19

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Acknowledgement

Thanks to Almighty Allah for giving us the strength to complete the assignment
within the given time. We would like to express heartiest appreciation to our
honorable course teacher Ms. Shamima Akter Smriti for his brilliant instruction.
Though the topic was new to us we have tried our best to point out all important
information about Technical textile use in defense sector. We have faced some
problems while taking the information from the web.

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Abstract

The global market for technical textiles is rising as never before. Although US and
EU continue to be major manufacturers and consumers of technical textiles, the
Asian countries like China and India have recently emerged as chief production
centers of technical textiles. In the year 2000, the world market for technical textiles
was estimated to have value of US $ 93 billion, which has already crossed US$126
billion in 2010. Also in last five years, the textiles disposed of in landfill sites have
raised from 7% to 30% in US alone. Soon the technical textile will have similar story
all over the world because this being very strong, durable and versatile material and
hence, will not degrade or destroy easily in the nature. With increase of its demand
and consumption, the problem for its disposal will also increase many fold. The
technical textiles are grouped in 12 main categories. Out of it, Protect (personal and
property protection) textile, broadly refers to Defense Textile has been given
special reference in this paper. Experiments have shown that the major properties of
these textiles do no deteriorate much even after its main use for years. Finally ways
and means for innovative, added-value applications for recycled defense textiles and
making desirable products out of recycled post-consumer materials are explained in
this paper.

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Introduction

Defense forces on land, sea and air are reliant on technical textiles. It may be woven,
knitted or non-woven. They may also be coated or laminated. These textiles offer
invaluable properties for military forces. The following figure gives an idea about
the properties provided by the technical textiles offered to the defense. But we should
understand that providing all the three properties in single clothing is very difficult
and hence they are given by different layers in combat clothing system. Protection
and defense are passive responses, i.e. they absorb the impending energy or impact
for protecting the underlying structure. Military uniforms must meet specific
protective performance requirements related to their use ion battlefield, tanks,
aircrafts, underwater etc. including the high hazards such as gravitational forces
during high acceleration-deceleration, extreme temperatures ambient conditions,
immersion hypothermia etc. The technical textiles have proved to be the major
contributor to the defense applications replacing the conventional heavier materials.

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Historical Background
Protective garments were used in defense from ages back. When we see through
the history, we can understand the path travelled by the protective garments
provided to the defense personnel, starting with the heavy metal gears used by the
rulers of the past to todays light weight armors. We will have a quick glance over
the developments of the defense textiles in the following pages in two divisions.

We will see the developments in detail in the following pages. First we will see
about the defense textiles that were used in the pre twentieth century, and then we
will see about in the twentieth century.

Pre-Twentieth century:

Bright, shiny and colorful dresses.

Large epaulettes to increase the apparent width of the shoulders.
Tall headwear made from animal furs (bearskin caps), feathers (ostrich), to
increase the apparent height of troops.
The materials used were all of natural origin, based upon wool and goat
hairs, cotton, silk, flax

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Such uniforms do not provide comfort during wearing.

The twentieth century defense clothing:

Khaki colored uniforms from cotton twill or drill entered service for tropical
use in 1902
It was found to give insufficient protection from the elements in temperate
climates, so that wool worsted serge (twill fabric) uniforms were issued in
the khaki or brown colors .
For non-clothing textile items such as tents, shelters, covers, nets, loadcarriage items and sleeping systems were made from natural fibers based
upon wool, cotton, flax, jute, hemp, sisal, and kapok.
Those used for screens, covers and tents were heavy, cumbersome, and
prone to degradation by insects, moisture and biological organisms

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Denison smock:

A lightweight windproof cotton gabardine fabric, and bearing rudimentary

camouflage Patterning, was introduced for airborne paratroopers in 1941.
Captain Denison served with a special camouflage unit commanded by
Oliver Mussel, an eminent theatrical stage designer.

Four-color disruptively:
In 1970, the olive green (OG) 100% cotton satin drill fabric appeared.
Followed in 1972 by the first four-color disruptively patterned material
(DPM) for temperate woodland camouflage.
The UK was one of the first forces to introduce such a printed material for
combat forces combat forces.

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Criteria for modern military textile materials

Physical,
Environmental,
Camouflage,
Specific battlefield
Threats,
Flames,
Heat and flash,
Economic considerations

Ballistic Protection:
The main threats to military personnel are fragmenting projectiles rather than
bullets. The projectiles originate from grenades, mortars, artillery shells, mines and
improvised explosive weapons. The other threats are low velocity bullets from
handguns and high velocity bullets from rifles and machine guns.

Textile Fibers for Ballistic Protection:

Earlier, woven silk fabrics were used for ballistic protection. More recently high
modulus aliphatic nylon 6.6 with high degree of crystallinity and low elongation
was developed and widely used in body armor and as textile reinforcement in
composite helmets.

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Kevlar:
Developed by DuPont, this is widely used in the modern generation of light weight
body amours. It consists of long molecular chains produced from poly-phenylene
terephthalamide. The chains are highly oriented with strong inter chain bonding
that results in unique combination of properties, which include high tensile
strength at low weight, low elongation at break, high modulus, low electrical
conductivity, high chemical resistance, low thermal shrinkage, high toughness,
excellent dimensional stability, high cut resistance and flame resistance. It does not
melt and is unaffected by moisture. It is five times stronger than steel on an equal
weight basis.

Twaron
This is another pararamid fiber. The yarn uses 1000 or more finely spun a single
filament that acts as an energy sponge, absorbing a bullets impact and quickly
dissipating its energy through engaged and adjacent fibers. Because more filaments
are used, the impact is dispersed more quickly.

Spectra
This fiber is an ultra-high strength polyethylene fiber. Ultrahigh molecular weight
polyethylene is dissolved in a solvent and fibers are produced through gel spinning
process. These fibers are 10 times stronger than steel, more durable than polyester
and has a specific strength 40% greater than aramid fibers.

DSM Dyneema :
It has extremely high strength to weight ratio and is light enough to float on water.
It has high energy absorption characteristics and dissipates shock waves faster.

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Environmental Protection
Military ground forces face the most difficult operational conditions of all. Modern
forces such as infantry, marines and parachutes operates as lightly equipped, highly
mobile brigades who are expected to move at shirt notice to any part of the world.
Once in place they have to wear or carry all their personal equipments and can be
exposed to wide range of environmental conditions. Unlike civilians, ground forces
cannot choose to operate in good weather, nor can they control over their work rates.
Soldiers typically operate in short bursts of high activity, running carrying
equipment and weapons. Keeping dry and comfortable is essential. Excessive
activity and sweating in a cold climate followed by inactivity can lead to
hypothermia, whereas high work rates whilst wearing layers of protective clothing
in hot climates lead to hyperthermia. These conditions can lead to illness or death.

Environmental Protection can be classified into three major components.

They are:
Thermal protection
Chemical protection
Biological protection

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Thermal Protection:
Thermal insulation depends on the entrapment of still air in the structure. Fibers,
yarns and fabrics offer a very large surface area to trap the maximum amount of
still air. Finer fibers tend to entrap more still air than coarse fibers for the same
bulk, although they tend to produce dense felt-like structures. An efficient insulator
will comprise of 10-20% of suitably dispersed fiber and 80-90% air. Textiles have
advantage of low density, good resilience, good drape and handle, easy care and
durability. The units of measuring thermal insulation are warmth/thickness
Tog/cm. Micro fiber batting such as Thinsulite exhibit higher values of 3.0 Tog/cm
due to their larger surface area.

Chemical Protection:
These effects are insidious, lethally horrific and raise highly emotional fears. The
classical chemical agent, mustard attacks moist skin, tissues and respiratory tract
causing severe blistering, swelling and burns. Nerve agents affect the transmission
of nerve impulses in the body.

Biological Protection:
Classical agents include bacteria and viruses. The essential protection devices for
individuals are nasal or full face respirators which filter out and deactivate the
toxic species. One or two piece suits with hoods and efficient seals, gloves and
over boot complete the ensemble. Clothing is made of completely impermeable
butyl rubber materials but the physiological load imposed means that they can be
worn only short periods. Also in use is a disposable two layer suit comprising of an
inner non-woven textile sprayed with powdered charcoal in a carrier and treated
with an oil and water repellent fluorocarbon finish .The outer layer is a woven twill
fabric comprising a nylon filament warp with mod acrylic weft which carries a
water repellent finish. This layer is designed to wick and spread oleophilic agents
to evaporate as much as possible before it transfers to the charcoal layer
underneath.

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Impact Protection of Textile

For years the manufacturers of high-performance apparel have struggled to
develop the systems that protect against high energy impacts without sacrificing
flexibility, breathability or ease of use.
APS is an intelligent fabric that consists of 3-D spacer textile treated with specially
formulated, response silicon coating. It remains soft and flexible under normal
conditions but when stressed under high impact force; the material instantly
becomes rigid and then immediately returns to a flexible state. This innovative
material offers the unique combination of benefits that is particularly suited for use
in high performance protective apparel and equipment. These benefits include:
1. Fully integrated active safety that can be stitched directly into the garments
2. Material customization and versatility that allow many creative design
possibilities
3. Breathable, flexible and lightweight construction for outstanding comfort and
freedom of movement
4. Washable for easy care and maintenance

Stab & Ballistic Protection

These are the vests that protect their wearer against the twin threats of bullet and
knives. The vests combine two established technologies:
* DSMs high performance polyethylene fiber (Dyneema) provides ballistic
protection
* Bekaerts steel cord (Steel skin) gives the wearer stab protection
A combination of these two materials offers the body armor manufacturers the
chance to make dual-protection vests that are lighter in weight. Vests made with
Dyneema fiber provide ballistic protection at an extremely low weight and together
with flexibility, this leads to increased comfort for the user. Steel cord fabrics
provide stab protection against the edged weapons. Steel skin actually blunts and
damages a blade with each thrust while Dyneema provides exceptional energy

P a g e | 13

absorption to stop damaged knife and to minimize trauma. Dyneema is a fiber from
ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene that is both strong and lightweight: on a
weight for weight basis, it is 15 times stronger than steel and up to 40% stronger
than aramid fibers, but it floats on water. Dyneema is extremely durable and resistant
to moisture, ultra-violet radiations and chemicals.

Flames, Heat & Flash Protection

Personnel operating in confined spaces such as armored vehicles, ships submarines
and aircraft are at high risk of burns, as are ground troops are exposed to nuclear
weapons. Fires in confined space produce toxic products which can kill and smoke
which hinders escape. Modern thermoplastic fibers can melt and drip injuring
humans and spreading the fire in furnishing and fittings. The most widely used
flame retardant material in forces is Proban treated cotton, alone or in blends with
up to 30% polyester. Its advantages are low cost, wide availability and low
shrinkage in fire. Its disadvantages are that the THPOH treatment can weaken the
fibers, it liberates fumes and smoke and it must not be laundered with soap using
hard water, as flammable residues can be left in the fabric.

Decontamination Technology
Major emphasis now-a-days is also given to development of de-contaminated
textiles. Decontamination is the process of neutralizing or removing chemical or
biological agents from people, equipment, and the environment. For military
purposes, decontamination must restore the combat effectiveness of equipment and
personnel as rapidly as possible. Most current decontamination systems are labor
intensive and resource intensive, require excessive amounts of water, are corrosive
and/or toxic, and are not considered environmentally safe. Current R&D is focused
on the development of decontamination systems to overcome these limitations and
effectively decontaminate a broad spectrum of CB agents from all surfaces and
materials. Because of the vastly different characteristics of personnel, personal
equipment, interior equipment, exterior equipment, and large outdoor areas,
situation-specific decontamination systems must be developed.

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Camouflage Concealment & Deception

The word camouflage comes from the

French word camoufler (to disguise)
and was first introduced by the French
during World War I to define the
concealment of objects and people by
the imitation of their physical
surroundings, in order to survive
There are earlier examples of the use of
camouflage by skirmishing infantry
from the 1750s to 1800s, followed by
the use of khaki coloring after 1850 in
India.
In essence, effective camouflage must
break up the objects contours, and
minimize contrasts between the object
and the environment.

Ultraviolet waveband:
Only in the snow covered environment is UV observation of
military importance.
The threat is mainly from photographic systems which use quartz
optics and blue/UV sensitive film emulsions
Developments have seen the use of CCD video camera systems
which can now operate in this short wavelength region.
Snow has a uniform high reflectance at all visible wavelengths,
that is, it appears white, but it also continues to have a high
reflectance in the UV region.

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The detection problem occurs with white textiles or coatings, as

the titanium dioxide pigment which is commonly used as a lowcost widely a valuable treatment for artificial fibers is visually
white, but has low reflectance in the UV
Luckily, other pigments such as barium sulphateare suitable and
can be incorporated into textile coatings.
It is interesting to note that the reflectance of snow is between 80
and 98% in the UV and visible bands.

Visible waveband:
In this range we are trying to
mimic natural or even artificial
backgrounds, not just in terms
of color, but also patterns, gloss
and texture.
Color can be measured in terms
of tristimulus coordinates using
a spectrophotometer in the
laboratory.
Camouflage is one of the
unique areas where textile
coloration is used for a
functional purpose, rather
than for aesthetic Purpose.

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Visual decoys:
Textile materials are widely used to fabricate and simulate the outline of
high value military targets such as aircraft, tanks, missile launchers, and
other vehicles.
These decoys vary in their complexity depending on the source of the
potential attack.

Inflatable decoys made from neoprene or hypaloncoated nylon fabrics have

been used to mimic armored fighting vehicles (AFV), missile
launcher/tracker modules, artillery, and other vulnerable equipment.
These are cheap and easy to transport and deploy

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Dyes for near infrared camouflage:

Cellulosic fires and blends thereof have been successfully dyed with a
selected range of vat dyes which have large conjugated systems of aromatic
rings.
These have met NATO requirements for many years.
Other fires such as wool, and synthetic fibers such as nylon, polyester,
aramids (Nomex, Conex or Kernel ), and polyolefin shave proved
more difficult, Since these fibers are dyed with small molecules which have
either little or no absorption, and thus high reflectance, in the NIR region

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Conclusion:
The main military nations have research programmers geared towards future
combat and protective clothing as integrated systems. The programmers tend to be
led by military threats or capability gaps doctrine, rather than exploitation of new
technologies for the sake of it. The systems approach involves all the major
stakeholders, including, strategic planners, users, equipment capability managers,
operational analyzers, R&D scientists, producers, contracts staff etc. The general
aims of future systems are:

Improve protection against natural and battlefield threats

Maintain thermo-physiological comfort or survival in extreme conditions
Improve compatibility between and within different clothing components
Reduce weight and bulk of materials
Integrate functionality so that fewer layers provide multi-layer protection
Reduce life cycle costs by making systems more effective, durable, and
recyclable and by buying few components in the system

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References:
1. Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles Sabit Adanur
2. Textiles for Protection Ed. by Richard A. Scott
3. www.fist-uk.org
4. www.natickarmy.net
5. Impact protection becomes flexible, lightweight & breathable, Tech Text Int.,
p31, May 2006
6. http://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2014/02/an-overview-of-defence-textile.html
7. http://www.technicaltextile.net/articles/protectiveclothing/detail.aspx?articleid=348
8. https://www.scribd.com/doc/126844449/Textile-in-Defense
9. http://www.ncto.org/industry-facts-figures/textiles-and-our-military/