Bullet Proof Turban?
Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8039921.stm
Leaving aside the PC nature of the whole thing, since it is a religious matter & all, but wouldnt a turban of ballistic resistant material be better than a helmet of the same nature? It strikes me that multiple layers of energy-absorbent yet strong materials wrapped in a spiral pattern would have clear advantages over a single multi-layered bowl type helmet. Missing a trick?
Leaving aside the PC nature of the whole thing, since it is a religious matter & all, but wouldnt a turban of ballistic resistant material be better than a helmet of the same nature? It strikes me that multiple layers of energy-absorbent yet strong materials wrapped in a spiral pattern would have clear advantages over a single multi-layered bowl type helmet. Missing a trick?
Load of bull, to be honest. They do not NEED to wear the turban at all times, especially when it is not practical to do so.
There are Sikhs serving in Iraq/Afghanistan who normally wear turbans instead of berets, and then wear kevlar helmets just like everyone else when on ops. There is nothing to stop Sikh police officers donning kevlar helmets to carry out firearms or riot ops, etc. Protection of your life comes above displaying your faith; even in the Indian armed forces many Sikhs wear combat helmets - AFAIK no-one there has lobbied the government to design a kevlar turban.
In any case, even if a couple of million was spent developing one, the cost per unit ( the number of Sikh males in the police force needing one for ops is always going to be a small number) will be high. I'm amazed if the rumour about West Midlands spending £100,000 on trying to adapt helmets is true - a six figure sum to fix a 'problem' that doesn't actually exist is a waste of money in my books.
Glazbagun, I'm pretty sure the current design of helmets provides pretty good ballistic protection - the fact that they've evolved into rounded designs rather than turban shapes suggests nothing would be gained by changing the shape. The current helmets already have several layers of composite fibres in their construction - if you were to keep wrapping the layers to the thickness of a turban the wearer would get a bit of a sore neck if they had to wear it all day!
There are Sikhs serving in Iraq/Afghanistan who normally wear turbans instead of berets, and then wear kevlar helmets just like everyone else when on ops. There is nothing to stop Sikh police officers donning kevlar helmets to carry out firearms or riot ops, etc. Protection of your life comes above displaying your faith; even in the Indian armed forces many Sikhs wear combat helmets - AFAIK no-one there has lobbied the government to design a kevlar turban.
In any case, even if a couple of million was spent developing one, the cost per unit ( the number of Sikh males in the police force needing one for ops is always going to be a small number) will be high. I'm amazed if the rumour about West Midlands spending £100,000 on trying to adapt helmets is true - a six figure sum to fix a 'problem' that doesn't actually exist is a waste of money in my books.
Glazbagun, I'm pretty sure the current design of helmets provides pretty good ballistic protection - the fact that they've evolved into rounded designs rather than turban shapes suggests nothing would be gained by changing the shape. The current helmets already have several layers of composite fibres in their construction - if you were to keep wrapping the layers to the thickness of a turban the wearer would get a bit of a sore neck if they had to wear it all day!
Edited by Taffer on Saturday 9th May 02:50
I know of a seikh Air Traffic controller ( a top fella btw, real funny guy!)who had thousands spent by his unit to modify one of his "headgears" to incorporate internal speakers and mike for his RT headset. I always thought they were one long peiece that they wound everyday, but this thing was ready wound just like a big hat!
It was good that the unit CO authorised the speacial "turban" (not sure they call them that), otherwise the Comms guys were planning on moddifying a stock headset to make it simply massive to fit over the top of it!!! It would have been like "Mars Attacks" if they had!
It was good that the unit CO authorised the speacial "turban" (not sure they call them that), otherwise the Comms guys were planning on moddifying a stock headset to make it simply massive to fit over the top of it!!! It would have been like "Mars Attacks" if they had!
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