Egyptian University student develops light-weight bullet proof vests

With a military insurgency still waging in Egypt, a young university student has ventured into a mission to try keep the security forces safe.

At the British University in Cairo, Remon Ashraf is developing a new type of body armour that is both lightweight and relatively cheap to produce.

He said he was personally touched when he saw security forces were under frequent attacks from Islamist militias.

He says the changing nature of warfare means security forces need new types of equipment to protect them.

“The idea came to me after seeing the frequent attacks on police officers and security personnel. The attacks are no longer the same…providing the soldiers with safety no longer requires traditional heavy armour,” Ashraf explained.

In traditional body armour, steel, ceramic or metallic plates are used in layers to provide maximum protection.

By using a combination of chemical additives and adhesives on polyamide fabrics, Ashraf says he has reduced the weight of traditional body armour to less then half of its current weight.

He says that with minimal layering, his new product can provide protection from a 9mm pistol bullet travelling at a few hundred miles per second.

“What I thought of was to create a composite material, we will use this material and enhance it using chemical additives which will provide us with bulletproof armor which weighs less, costs less and is thinner than current models.”

Ashraf and his team hope to develop the product further, so that it will ultimately provide protection against automatic machine gun fire and rifles.

Ashraf further said that the vests have been created using a method that will guarantee very high efficiency without using too many layers, which would otherwise increase the weight and cost to the manufacturer or those who use them.