Indian Army soldiers to get 1.86 lakh bullet-proof jackets soon

The Army chief has assured soldiers and civilians that he would soon arrange bullet-proof jackets for Indian soldiers.

"The Army is moving to provide the jackets at the earliest," said General Dalbir Singh Suhag at his annual press conference which was held last week. ET sources from the Defence Ministry confirmed that this is the first time that the acquisition process has cleared the technical stage, after its beginning in 2009.

The purchase of these jackets has seen aw several hitches in the past years; even after the government issued a fresh proposal in 2012 after changing the qualitative requirements. Now that the technical trials have been cleared, there is nothing major that can stop the procurement process.

"In the field trials stage we just check the user comfort, weight etc and no real technical issues. In case of bullet-proof jackets, this stage is unlikely to create any bottleneck," a senior Army official told ET.

Image source