By: Granch Berhe2015

MILITARY TEXTILES/Defense Textiles

HISTORY

• Till 19th century military land battles were fought at close range by individual engagements. ‘Danger’ colors such as scarlet( bright red) were widely used.

• At turn of the 20th century advances in technology provided lethal long-range weapons with improved sighting.

• These caused rapid changes in military strategy and tactics, as engagements could be made at a distance.

• Today its important to hide troops and equipment by blending in with the background.

CONT…

• The British Forces adopted khaki coloured uniforms• The first khaki drill (or KD) made from cotton twill entered

service for tropical use in 1902. • In the 1930s the UK War Office became increasingly

aware of the need for new and more rational combat dress to meet the needs of mechanisation on land, sea, and in the air.

• This was to provide Better protection, comfort, and practicality.

• lightweight windproof cotton gaberdine fabric, with having rudimentary camouflage patterning, was introduced for airborne paratroopers in 1941.

SOLDIER EQUIPMENT

Today, soldiers are involved in all military conflicts. The soldier’s combat spirit and effectiveness on the battlefield is highly dependent on technical supply, weaponry, personal satisfaction and even comfort conditions. Therefore, huge attention is paid to the soldier’s equipage and medical assistance, the monitoring of his physical and psychological state. This not only helps to raise the combat spirit of soldiers, but also to reduce the manpower losses in the battlefield.

Criteria for modern military textile materials:

• military textiles will be discussed here under: – physical, environmental, camouflage, specific battlefield threats, and the

economic considerations. In general military textiles must;

Light weight and low bulk Because

High durability and

Dimensional stability Because

Items have to be carried by individuals or vehicles with minimal space available

Must operate reliably in adverse conditions for long periods of time without maintenance.

MILITARY COMBAT CLOTHING SYSTEMS• Based upon the layer principle.• Each layer performs a specific function.• Special protective layers are added, including:

– A ballistic protection system comprising body armor and – A helmet, a nuclear, biological and chemical over suit, and a

snow camouflage over suit

ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

Property Comments

Water Repellant, Water ProofWind Proof, Snow Shedding

For exterior materials exposed to cold/wet weather

Water vapor permeable For clothing and personal equipments (tents)Thermally insulating For Cold climates

Rot-resistant For tents, covers, nets etc.

UV light resistant For environments with strong sunlight

Air permeable. For hot tropical climatesBiodegradable If discarded or buried

UNDERWEAR GARMENTS

• Textile materials used for next-to-skin clothing are primarily worn for hygiene reasons.

• The thermal insulation properties tend to be less important than the tactile properties and the way the material handles moisture (mainly perspiration) in order to remove it form the skin.

• Military combat underwear fabric used by many nations need to be made from non-thermoplastic fibers to minimize contact melt/burn injuries.

• The perspiration and handling properties of knitted underwear materials are extremely critical for military use.

THERMAL INSULATION MATERIALS

• Military forces need to survive and fight in the most extreme conditions.

• Cold/Wet regions tend to cause the most severe problems, as it is necessary to provide and maintain dry thermal insulation materials.

• Cold/Dry areas, including the arctic, Antarctic, and mountainous regions require the carriage and use of clothing and sleeping bags which possess high levels of thermal insulation.

• Military forces are prone to sacrificing thermal comfort for light weight and low bulk items.

WATER VAPOUR PERMEABLE/WATER PROOF MATERIALS

• One of the incompatibilities in technical textiles is that associated with providing waterproof materials which allow free passage of water vapor (perspiration). Without this facility, physiological problems can occur when impermeable clothing is worn by highly active soldiers.

• In the most extreme war operations individuals cannot choose either the climatic conditions or the intensity of their activities. This can result in injury or death due to hypothermia or hyperthermia.

• Since around 1980,appreciable effort has been expended by polymer and textile manufactures to solve this problem.

• There are now a wide range of woven, coated,or laminated fabrics which are waterproof and water vapour permeable.

TYPES OF WATER VAPOUR PERMEABLE BARRIER FABRICS

• High density woven fabrics: Are made by Ventile cotton fabric. There are also a

range of fabrics based on woven microfiber polyester.• Microporous coatings and films: Are widely available in many variants. Such membrane

are typified by having microporous voids of pore sizes from 0.1-5 um. The most well-known product, Gore-Tex, utilizes a microporous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane.

CAMOUFLAGE GARMENTS• The word camouflage was first introduced by the

French during World War I to define the concealment of objects and people by the imitation of their physical surroundings, in order to survive.

FLAME-RETARDANT TEXTILES IN MILITARY USE

• Although the range of flame-retardant products is large, the actual number of types used by military forces is quite small.

• The most widely used of these is Proban treated cotton, a tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium hydroxide product, bound to the fiber and cured in ammonia,

• Advantages - wide availability and low cost. Its resistant to many launderings, and gives good protection with low thermal shrinkage in fire.

• Disadvantages -it liberates fumes and smoke when activated, the treatment can weaken the fabric or spoil its handle, and it must not be laundered using soap and hard water, as these can leave flammable residues in fabric

FLAME RETARDANT TEXTILES IN MILITARY USE

Fiber/fabric type

Treatment type

Cost Military uses

Proban cotton Chemical additive

Relatively cheap

Navy action overall Anti-flash hood and gloves

Aramid InherentFiber property

Expensive Bomb disposal suitSubmariner’s clothingArctic tent liners

CONT….

Zirpro wool chemical additive

Medium/ high

Navy firefighters

Modacrylic Inherent fiber property

Medium/low Nuclear, biological and chemical clothing tent liner

Flame retardant viscose

Chemical additive

Medium In blends with aramid fibers only

FLAME-RETARDANT TEXTILES

BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE PROTECTION

• Biological and chemical warfare is a constant world threat.

• The toxic agents used are relatively easy to produce and their effects are emotionally and lethally horrific to the general population.

• They are weapons of mass destruction e.g syria. • The fact that they have not been used in recent

conflicts may be due, in part, to the difficulty of delivering and disseminating such weapons onto specific chosen targets

• It has been suggested that such weapons have been used in Syria in the recent crisis

CONT…

• Most current clothing systems use activated carbon on a textile substrate to absorb the agent vapour.

• Activated carbon can be used in the form of a finely divided powder coating, small beads, or in carbon fiber fabric form.

• This form of carbon has a highly developed pore structure and a high surface area, enabling the adsorption of a wide spectrum of toxic gases.

• Those with boiling points greater than 60oC are readily physically adsorbed on the charcoal, but vapours boiling at lower temperatures must be chemically removed by impregnants supported on the carbon.

BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WARFARE CLOTHING

EOD CLOTHING

Explosive Ordnance Disposal-EOD

TEXTILE MATERIALS FOR BALLISTIC PROTECTION

• Textile body armours may give protection against fragments and low velocity bullets, but not against other threats such as high velocity Bullets.

• Textile armours are also defeated by flechettes, which are small, sharp, needle-shaped objects, disseminated in large numbers by exploding warheads or shells.

• In the case of these high speed projectiles we have to resort to using shaped plates made from metals, composites or ceramics. These are placed over the vital organs such as the heart .

CONT…

• Since the 1970s a range of aromatic polyamide fibers have been developed (para-aramids). Fibers such as Kevlar (Du Pont) and Twaron (Enka) are available in a wide range of decitexes and finishes.

• A range of ultra high modules polyethylene (UHMPE) fibers have been developed. They are typically gel spun polyethylene (GSPE) fibers, with trade names such as Dyneema (DSM) and Spectra.

TEXTILE MATERIALS FOR BALLISTIC PROTECTION

DEVELOPMENT IN MILITARY TEXTILES• Some of the recent developments in military clothing include

progress made in minimizing weight and maximizing wear comfort

• Militants are also turning to nanotechnology in an effort to make their armed forces more mobile and better protected from enemy assaults. Through nanotechnology, new personnel camouflage systems can be developed that can change pattern and colors as environment changes.

• “Chameleonic” camouflage allows the soldier to become a mirror of his surroundings. Other nanotechnological developments include the use of fibers which can stimulate muscles and thereby give soldiers greater strength for lifting or jumping

Chameleonic camouflage

• Development efforts are also underway to make next-to-skin garments from electronic textiles which can determine a soldier’s physiological status including heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration and body temperature.

BATTLEFIELD RECONNAISSANCE EQUIPMENT

Receiving the information on the enemy's force structure, its location, and potential.

unmanned air vehicles; radars; sonars; space satellites.

MILITARY ROBOTS

Robots play a constantly increasing role in warfare – they are unmanned aerial reconnaissance and combat vehicles, demining robots, (e.g. “SPIKER”, “RASP”), universal military robots capable of substituting soldiers (“Warrior 700”), robots making corridors in mine fields etc. Nevertheless, the ethical issues on the applications of robots in warfare and the problems of the latters’ consistency with Geneva conventions appear already.

ANTI-MISSILE SHIELD

In case of global military conflict, the role of anti-missile defence becomes very important. Although anti-missile defence with a hundred percent reliability was not reached by any country, huge efforts are put into this area. For this purpose early attack detection systems, controllable rockets, high power lasers are used.