The Ordnance Clothing Factory (OCF) at Avadi in Chennai dispatched the country’s first ever export consignment of ordnance clothing to the Republic of Suriname on Tuesday. OCF General Manager BS Reddy flagged off the first consignment from the OCF premises this evening. Talking to reporters, he said the consignment has over 4500 military uniforms worth Rs 1.71 crore, which are being offered by the Ministry of Defence to Suriname under the Defence Diplomacy Fund to strengthen the mutual-relationship between the two countries.
The OCF at Avadi is a unit of the Public Sector Undertaking called Troops Comfort Ltd under the Ministry of Defence. It is a leading state-of-the-art Defence garment and armouring unit. From its inception in the year 1961, the OCF had supplied several crores of Defence uniforms, Tents, Parachutes, Bullet proof jackets and Helmets to the Defence, para-military and various state police forces.
OCF’s research and development activities over the years have made remarkable progress in delivering armouring products like Armored Vehicle Protection, Bullet Resistant Jacket and Bullet Resistant vest for the Tamil Nadu Police. It has dispatched Bomb Suits and Armoured Vehicle Protection for the Puducherry Police, and Ballistic Helmets to the Uttarakhand police and the DRDO, Hyderabad. It has developed Fragmentation Protection Suits as well.
The OCF has also developed Ultra Weight Ballistic Helmets capable of handling Threat Level IIIA and they were successfully trialled at the National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The Ultra-Light Weight Helmet weighs just 0.9 kg, when compared to the 1.35 kg of the existing standard variant. The OCF has initiated a new, an ambitious and visionary project for Future Soldier System which focuses on creating a comprehensive, integrated, and technologically advanced clothing solution for soldiers.
The OCF, Avadi has successfully developed items like BRJ Level – 6, Vehicle Armouring, Fragment Suit, Full body protector, Bomb Blanket, Bomb Disposal suit, Light Weight ballistic helmet and supplied to the customers. It has entered into R and D tie-up with renowned institutions like IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee and the CSIR Labs like AMPRI Bhopal and CECRI Karaikudi to develop modern defence equipment. OCF Avadi is credited with the supply of Defence products to the country’s troops during the India-China war-1962, India-Pakistan War-1971 and Kargil war-1999.
