Nurol selling innovative armors to Middle East

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Nurol Technologies General Manager Batum poses beside a model soldier adorned in Nurol’s locally produced bullet proof armored vest, which is weighs 4-5 kilos. AA photo

A private Turkish military contractor has said it has begun exporting what it called “Turkey’s first indigenous armor, the T-shield,” which it had began producing two years ago.

Nurol Technologies, a subsidiary company of Turkey’s Nurol conglomerate active in many fields including defense industry and construction, has begun selling the boron-carbide armor to Middle Eastern buyers, the company’s General Manager told Anatolia news agency yesterday. “Steel armor is very heavy and ruins many of the features of vehicles. Furthermore, the armor we have produced is a lot sturdier than steel,” said Tunç Batum, noting that their armor provides 100 percent protection.

“We are one of three countries in the world to manufacture state-of-the-art boron-carbide armor, falling just behind the United States and Germany. We have signed contracts worth $45 million so far,” Batum said.

However, the company is not currently exporting the armored bulletproof vests, according to Batum, but sold 1,000 of its bulletproof vests to the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish police. The standard steel bulletproof vest weighs 6 to 8 kilos, whereas Nurol’s armored vest weighs only 4 to 5 kilos. According to Batum, countries like the United States and Germany do not sell their armored vests to other countries, which is why Turkey has decided not to export.

Police, military the priority
“We have a limited production capacity and therefore our first priority is to make sure our own armed forces and police are protected,” he said. Boron carbide, a boron ceramic material, is one of the hardest materials known to man to be used in tank armor, bulletproof vests, building materials and numerous other industrial applications. Only cubic boron nitride and diamond are stronger.

Turkey used to be depended on China and the Far East for its armor, but spent close to $600 million to develop its own for the T-Shield in order to break its dependency on foreign resources.

Batum also said the armored shield would be used on Turkey’s national ship MİLGEM and its national tank Altay. The company is also interested in beefing up police and military outposts in the country’s eastern and southeastern regions.

“This is a national situation and we’ll do whatever we can. We are waiting for our orders,” he said.
FNSS, another Nurol Technologies, is producing armored vehicles also used by the Turkish military.