Researchers at IIT-Delhi have developed a new type of bulletproof jackets which is the lightest in the world. According to the researchers, this jacket which weighs about 8.2kgs can stop up to 8 bullets from an AK-series rifle and are also about 2kgs lighter than those that the Indian Army currently uses.

Another version of the jacket weighs 9.5 kgs and can stop as many as six bullets fired from certain sniper rifles. The bulletproof jackets that are being used by Indian soldiers currently weigh about 10.5 kgs. 

Professor Naresh Bhatnagar from the Centre of Excellence on Personal Body Armour at IIT-Delhi said the jackets have been developed in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and it took them 15 years to finally make them what they are today. 

"In 2008, an Army Major requested us to focus on lighter bulletproof jackets. The jackets that they used at the time used iron as the primary material and weighed 22-25 kg. The Major, who had been shot at in the line of duty, stressed on the need for drastically reducing the weight of the jackets so that the soldiers could operate effectively on the frontlines," Prof. Bhatnagar said. 

Professor Naresh Bhatnagar also said that the research into the development of the bulletproof jacket was so much that 25 M.Tech and 12 PhD students did their thesis on various aspects of these jackets which are made of polymer and ceramic.

Doctor Hemant Chauhan, a senior scientist at IIT Delhi, said the testing on the jackets was done internally. "We fire ballistic bullets using gas guns to carry the tests," he said. The jackets have got the approval of the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The researchers on the jackets said that they will be presenting the jackets at a NATO conference in Germany next month and expressed the hope that the gear will be saving the lives of Indian soldiers soon. 

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