Today, for any armed force in the world, armouring platforms have become a crucial priority. Platforms need to be protected from all threats that can be envisaged, and even more importantly from the ones that are hit by surprise. The most foolproof way of doing this is by armouring the platforms.  

While there is a wide range of platform protection solutions out there, it is important to select the one that serves as a great armour, and at the same time, is not a hazard to maintain, and enhances the performance of platforms.  

For the longest time, most platform protection solutions were built with steel for most of the genres, as steel was a relatively cheaper material, with multi-hit capability, and could be cut in any desired shape. However, with the newly evolved threats and the diverse demographic deployments, traditional steel armoured platforms cannot be guaranteed protection from heavy machine guns, cannons, and armour-piercing ammunition. Although steel offers structural rigidity, it comes with its own set of concerns for the platforms to be armoured.   

In the long run, steel armour solutions for platforms may compromise their performance as they can surge fuel consumption, lower payload capacities, grow maintenance costs, and reduce the platform’s life, along with another array of challenges. In such a scenario, the users have to ultimately trade off these platforms, nearing obsolescence with new state-of-the-art platforms, which come with a heavy cost implication. 

Platform protection solutions, which are built with composite materials, are expert solutions with many advantages. They offer excellent power-to-weight ratio performance, increased payload capabilities, optimum fuel consumption, and reduced carbon footprint, increased platform life, lower ownership cost, and reduced cost of obsolescence management.  

MKU offers ballistic protection solutions with their Generation 6 (Gen 6) Smart armouring solutions that are built with composite material. These solutions cover all genres–land systems, airborne systems, and naval systems. The Gen 6 armouring solutions for different land vehicles are available for a wide variety including combat vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, reconnaissance vehicles, military ambulances, tanks, civilian vehicles, cash transit vehicles, and many others. These lightweight ballistic armour solutions are of a specified weight and thickness and project chemical and mechanical properties that are important for the specific applications and field requirements for which type they are made. These panels supplement the basic hull of the vehicle in order to achieve the specified ballistic performance.  

Contrary to land vehicles, the penalty of weight in the case of fixed wings and rotary aircraft gets exponentially higher. Any weight added in form of armour to an aircraft can substantially compromise its endurance, performance, useful payload, range, and mission capability. Keeping in mind the value of safeguarding highly trained aircrews and guaranteeing mission accomplishment, the engineers at MKU have pioneered in designing and developing lightweight ballistic protection solutions leveraging Modulare Schutz Technik (MoST) along with Gen 6 armouring technology. MoST is a unique attachment system technique, which ensures excellent safety and flexibility for aircraft engaged in law-and-order duties, search and rescue, patrolling, and interception missions.  

Given the purview of heightened piracy cases along the busy shipping routes of the Gulf of Aden and the western African coast, it has become necessary for merchant shippers to proactively adopt armour solutions for critical areas such as Communication Bridges and stations for armed guards. The ballistic protection solutions that MKU offers for naval systems can be extended to merchant vessels as well to thwart any attacks by sea pirates and militants.  

For any platform protection solution provider, it is important to understand the challenges of integrating ballistic protection into all parts of a naval or shipping vessel and match the complex contours of the vessel's shape effectively to utilize all the available space. Such ballistic protection can be integrated during vessel construction or added later, depending on the customer's requirements.  

With its commitment to deliver the best in terms of safety, MKU has left no stone unturned to offer no-compromise protection for platform armouring.