Bhabha Kavach

India’s lightest and cheapest bullet proof jacket ‘Bhabha Kavach’ was shown at 2019’s International Police Expo at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

• The expo was organized by Nexgen Exhibitions (Asia’s leading and established trade fair, exhibition and conference organizer).
• The jacket weighs only 6.6 kg (compared to traditional jackets that weigh about 17-kg).

Production and Development

• Bhabha Kavach was developed indigenously by Defence organizations like Ordnance Factory Board and Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) with the transfer of carbon-nanomaterial technology from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
  o MIDHANI is a (public sector undertaking) specialized metals and metal alloys manufacturing facility in India, based in Hyderabad, Telangana.
  o Ordnance Factory Board is an industrial organization under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (headquartered in Kolkata).
  Manufacturing
• Bhabha Kavach is made from layers of high-density, high-tenacity polyethylene, which were fused through high temperature to form a thick, hard armour plate, which was sprayed with BARC’s carbon nanomaterial.
• The jacket’s materials are boron carbide (hard ceramics), carbon nano-tubes, and composite polymer (a polymer made from two or more types of polymer).