DRDE develop standard for Nuclear, Biological & chemical war protective clothing

After experiments and research for 30 years, Defence Research Development Establishment (DRDE) Gwalior developed a national standard for qualitative and quantitative method of determining breakthrough and permeation of Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) permeable protective clothing, said DRDE officials.

The Bureau of Indian Standards standardised the method, making India the fourth country after the US, UK and Germany to have its own national standard, claimed DRDE officials.

NBC suits are meant to protect soldiers in a hostile environment with chemical/biological agents and against radioactive fallout dust. The suits are designed to be worn for extended periods while continuing to operate in a combat environment.

DRDE joint director and head of test and evaluation Manisha Sathe said, “In NBC defence technologies, these are the first Indian Standards developed by DRDE. Earlier, the DRDE had developed various test methods for different NBC items as per the desired requirement and specification. After meticulous experimentation, methods have been developed and validated. Developed methods were further submitted for standardisation.”

“Under the Protective Textiles Sectional Committee, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has published IS 17377 in two parts in 2020. This standard also provides relative ranking or material screening information about the ability of test materials to resist chemical war breakthrough,” she added.

“This will also promote ‘Make in India’. It is expected to fulfil the long-pending needs of services. Developers, vendors and new startups in this field will assist them in streamlining their procurement and products. It will also ensure that only acceptable quality reaches the user which leads to a reduction in fatal casualties to the securities forces,” said AK Singh, director DRDE.

This work has been successfully done by a team of DRDE scientists Manisha Sathe, joint director and head of Test & Evaluation Division, Shiv Prakash Sharma, Dr Prabhat Garg, Dr Virendra Vikram Singh, Pushpendra Sharma and other technical staff of TED.

Sign on to read the HT ePaper epaper.hindustantimes.com