New products of NII Stali.

a) New generation of polymer fabric helmets (6B26, 6B27 and 6B28) with highest characteristics ever. The weight of these helmets ranges from 0.9 to 1.15 kg with fragmentation resistance (V50) up to 680 m/s. NII Stali proved again to be the leader in this field. These hel-mets are in mass-production and can be fitted with various devices such as night vision equipment.

b) New titanium helmets Rys and Ural produced of new high-strength titanium alloys are also in mass-production. The Ural helmet weighs 300g less than its titanium counterparts of 2nd protection class.	c) New ballistic vest Visit-MM of 2nd protection class with soft armor. It weighs only 2.7 kg at coverage of 30 sq.dm	d) Poplavok series floating vests. These vests were already demon-strated at the latest exhibition, but since then the design has been improved in accordance with customers' requirements.

f) SiC-based cast ceramics. For the first time this type of ceramics was demonstrated 2 years ago but mass-production was postponed due to the lack of funds. Its areal density is 340-360 g/sq. dm.	g) Liquid armor. The first attempts of NII Stali to apply its research po-tential in the field of liquid armor engineering were demonstrated. This sample attracted big interest.

h) Transparent armor providing protection against 9 mm bullets of PM and UZI with high survivability and satisfactory weight characteristics was developed by NII Stali in cooperation with foreign companies. The first results of the collaboration were demonstrated at the exhibi-tion.   i) Yana-10 and Yana A&B electroshock batons. These new models with no doubt have new features (Yana-10 is a remote model with disposable Tyser type cartridges, Yana-A&B is a multipurpose model with the accumulator rechargeable from the car cigarette lighter or household electric network without removing it from the baton case. 2 Energizer-type batteries can be used instead of the accumulator. The mass-production is on the schedule.

j) New 44C Grade steel features a little lower ballistic resistance than Grade 56 steel, but it is several times cheaper.

New products of other companies

It is important to point out a series of new materials presented by Teijun (Twaron):

a) 3-component structure for ballistic vests of the 1st class according to GOST Russian State Standard that consists of 6 layers of 250-tex Twaron and 6 layers of new non-woven two-layer polyethylene com-position. The third component is one layer of coated Twaron. This layer provides the required level of behind-armor trauma protection. It weighs 1.4 kilos.

b) The same principle applies to IIIA level armor of NIJ 0101.04 stan-dard. The pack with areal density of 3.6 kg/sq.m allows making the lightest ballistic vests of this class.

c) Calendered aramid fabrics for stab and puncture protection. The new woven material of 55-tex untwisted filament is subjected to cal-endering (flattening). 9 layers of such fabric resist a 50 kJ stab.

a) Polyethylene panels of 3rd protection class according to GOST standard produced by the French company ARES. The thickness of these panels is 18-20 mm, the area is 8 sq.dm., the weight is 1.4 kg (for comparison: the weight of the steel panel of equal area and re-sistance is 3.7 kg). The panels have an ergonomic profile.

b) Panels of small ceramic cylinders in a polymer matrix with pro-tection classes 6 and 6a. This technology was called "syntactic ce-ramics", in foreign countries it is called LIBA. The panels were also designed by ARES. Despite of construction advantages of this armor (relative flexibility, high survivability) it is unlikely to be used for per-sonal protection equipment because its areal density is over 580-600 g/sq.dm.

c) Russian company Splav have been trying to reproduce this type of armor for 2 years. They are using it for protection against APFSDS ammunition of caliber up to 30 mm. A whole family of armor patterns with such protection level were represented on the company's stand.

d) A new armor panel of organic-composite discrete syntactic ceramics was for the first time demonstrated by Armokom. A standard armor panel weights 1.8 kg and provides the 3rd protection class with high survivability. This panel is produced of ceramic hexagons in or-ganic composite matrix.   e) Organic composite materials as such are widely used by Armokom. According to Armokom, the organic-composite ceramic helmet weights 3.5 kg and provides protection against "long-barrel weapon" bullets. Last year this helmet weighed 4.5 kg and featured 5th protec-tion class. Most experts doubt acceptability of this helmet as the re-sult of high-speed bullet impact on the head while wearing the helmet in the common way can be catastrophic.

f) A new type of F110 Grade steel was patented by Fort Technology. It has appeared to be a common bulletproof armor steel that is very similar in composition to Grade 44 steel. It is produced at the "Serp and Molot" factory. The quality of the bulletproof steel at this factory including Grade F110 is very poor. Steel armor panels of Fort Tech-nology are 0.6-0.8 mm thinner than armor panels of common types of armor steel (C-85,Grade 44, Grade 96 etc.).

Using thin steel armor panels makes the company implement the principle when the whole protection structure, including the fabric pack, participates in protec-tion process. In this case the steel armor panel is perforated, but the penetrated bullet with fragments is stopped by the fabric pack. The total weight of the protection structure in this case is minimal though the risk of perforation of the whole structure is much higher because of the lack of safety margin.

g) A whole range of vests and helmets made of discrete fabric ma-terials (DFM) with rather good characteristics presented on the stand of Armokom proves the fact that the company is persistently develop-ing this technology. Though in the cause of service of DMF helmets several shortcomings have been revealed. It was mentioned that they are too bulky due to their large thickness; they have low shock resistance and limited service life which is typical for all aramid prod-ucts. At the same time, their weight (1.8 kg) is close to titanium hel-mets (2.0 kg) of the same protection level, which are much more comfortable and reliable.

There were also more protection structure solutions and combina-tions of personal protection equipment than at the previous exhibi-tion.

a) Ballistic vests for dogs were presented by 2 companies - Ar-mokom and NPO "Spetsmaterialy". Putting a bulletproof vest on the dog isn't a new idea. Armokom promoted are no new ideas of dog clothing since that time.

Armokom promoted such project as long as 15 years ago

b) Nowadays much attention is paid to shield development and many companies demonstrated a wide spectrum of various configurations and protection levels of shields. For example, Armokom demonstrated 5 configurations including shields of pro-tection classes 6 and 6a. The weight of such shields with area of 50 sq. dm is no more than 28 kg. The material is ceramics. Ac-cording to the most users, though these shields are of good qual-ity they are very expensive and disposable. A bullet hit leads to to-tal breakage. The issue of repair is still under discussion.

Quite a number of shields were represented by Klass, Fort Tech-nology and "NII Spetstechniki & Svyazi". You can see shields of Klass on Photos 21 and 22.

c) EOD suits always attract much attention of EOD personnel and a whole family of such ensembles, including those made by foreign companies, were demonstrated. A similar suite is pro-duced by Fort Technology.
An attempt to design an own version of EOD suite was made by NPO "Spetsmaterialy". Though their ensemble is suitable only for bullet protection not EOD operations

d) A suit for special operation teams by Armokom is notable for its all-round protection against small and low-velocity fragments (V50=320m/s) and bullet protection of vital organs. This ensemble was demonstrated for the first time.

e) As for the suit for protection against cuts represented by Ar-mokom, it's far from being a new product. It is very similar to the cut-protecting suit designed by NII Stali 15 years ago.

f) Camouflage suit "Shishok" (left photo) by Armokom can't be considered a new product either. Similar suits are already produced by Splav, "Shturmsnaryazhenie", NPO "Spetsmateri-aly" and a lot of minor companies

Armokom claims to have applied a new radar-absorbing material called Bicarbalon effective in radar-range. But this isn't a new ma-terial; it was developed 15 years ago by NII (research institute) of Synthetic Fibers. It works in the narrow range of wave lengths and provides signature reduction only from a limited number of radar surveillance systems. As for optical camouflaging, it has been proved long time ago that small painting pattern used by Shishok isn't effective even at ranges of 50-150m.

Besides, this ensemble is useless for protection from IR-reconnaissance de-vices, which are becoming essential at the battlefield and protec-tion against them is very important and complicated. NII Stali is currently developing similar ensembles but including a complex of protection features. Information about this issue is available on our site in the section "Misc. - articles of our authors".

g) High-modular polyethylene helmet was represented by Armokom for the first time. This helmet cannot be called outstanding among the products of this type (it weighs 1kg and its fragmentation protection is only 560 m/s)

h) Among the ballistic vests represented at the exhibition only a vest by Techinkom is worth attention. It is the first demonstrated con-cealable vest of protection class 6-6a. 2 ceramic panels in a fabric case are used in this vest. SiC ceramics used in this vest with the areal density of only 300 g/sq.dm is similar to boron car-bide-based ceramics. Though it's not clear how the engineers managed to solve the problem of behind-armor trauma, which is very important in ceramic structures.

i) "Uvikom" is demonstrating quite a good metal fibre-reinforced material not for the first time. Cut protection gloves produced of this material cost $10 only.

These are the most interesting new products in the field of personal protec-tion equipment demonstrated at INTERPOLYTEX-2007.