The ever-changing threat landscape has necessitated the continual evolution of tactical solutions to improve the survivability of the law enforcement personnel who challenge such threats on a daily basis. Today, law enforcement agencies not only have to be prepared to tackle hand-guns and knife-brandishing deranged individuals but also to counter the sophisticated automatic weapons wielding hardened criminals. Therefore, a tactical ballistic body armour vest is the proven solution that can keep the protectors of our society best protected against a wide variety of ammunition threats. However, various research and studies point towards the growing aversion by police and law enforcement officers to wearing ballistic body armour vests.
Despite knowing the advantages of wearing tactical body armour, law enforcement personnel consider wearing body armor to be a hindrance owing to its weight. A typical ballistic body armour vest weighs anywhere between 4kgs to 7kgs. As a policeman on patrol duty has to wear it for long hours, it certainly weighs on his health with back and spine-related issues. Top of that, the threats that law enforcement officers face are unforeseen. They cannot be expected to wear the hard armoured inserts for front and back protection from high-speed ballistic projectiles at all times. As the additional protection will further increase the weight of the body armour vest.
Realizing the importance of body armour and considering the weight burden it forces upon a wearer, many law enforcement agencies are now adopting modular tactical ballistic body armour vests. Depending on the perceived level of threat, the law enforcement officer can configure the body armour vest for ballistic protection. For regular patrol duty, he can wear the body armour vest that has soft armour inserts for protection from hand-gun and knife threats. Whereas gearing up for situations of a standoff against armed criminals and terrorists, the law enforcement officer can use hard armour inserts along with soft armour inserts to protect his torso and back from ammunition fire of automatic/semi-automatic firearms. He can further increase the protected surface area of his body by attaching ballistic armoured shoulder straps, side protection inserts and groin protection guards.
Though these additional attachments add up to the weight of a ballistic body armour vest, they increase survivability chances by providing additional protection to other vulnerable parts of the body besides the front and back of the torso. Additionally, as a standoff not happens frequently and does not last long, the wearer is not burdened with the added load of the full tactical protection vest for a long duration and is provided with the maximum overall protection with no safety compromise. And once the standoff with the armed criminals is over, the officer can quickly detach the additional protective attachments without having to remove his basic armour vest.
To ensure the brave men and women of law enforcement agencies remain protected from changing threat dynamics in city-centric warfare, MKU offers ground-breaking innovations in tactical body armour solutions. With their GEN 6 ultra-lightweight armouring technology that uses strong composite materials, MKU has pioneered in reducing the body armour weight by up to 40% and making it 30% thinner and 50% more flexible as compared to standard body armour solutions. They have also innovatively approached the concept of body armour design by addressing the various concerns around comfort, heat stress and manoeuvrability. The modular ballistic body armour vest offered by MKU is highly scalable with side-opening pockets and attachment holders to configure the body armour for mission-specific needs. One such innovative feature offered by them is of quick-release mechanism in the Instavest-G6 series of body armour vests. This feature allows doffing the over vest in quick motion in emergency situations.
By providing modular protection capabilities for the front, back, collar and groin, which the wearer can choose depending on the mission requirements – the mobility, agility and endurance of the law enforcement personnel can be enhanced substantially.
Leveraging MKU’s 6th Generation ultra-lightweight armouring technology that uses strong composite materials, the soft-armour Instavest-G6 offers ballistic protection from handgun ammunition. However, with hard-armour inserts, the ballistic protection can be enhanced to NIJ Level-III protection. Instavest-G6 weighs less than 5 kg and is over 40% lighter, 30% thinner and 50% more flexible than most conventional vests, thus giving soldiers the ability to carry extra ammunition, batteries, rations, or other mission-critical equipment without increasing their burden or related stress. It also allows better speed, agility, endurance and manoeuvrability.