No more imported cold weather gear: Indian start-up's solution for Army

The late General Bipin Rawat once said that if the Indian textile sector can invent and manufacture the apparel required to maintain its soldiers in harsh temperatures across the country, the Indian armed forces will fully restrict the import of such clothing.

Armed with indigenous clothing systems developed by AROO, India's first military start-up specialising in defence apparel, soldiers are no longer reliant on imports for extreme cold-weather clothing systems (ECWCS).

ECWCS is a three-layer modular clothing system meant to keep the body warm in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius when worn simultaneously. Soldiers wear it in high-altitude environments, including the world's highest battleground, the Siachen Glacier.

In the second half of 2021, the first set of around 41,000 ECWCS was delivered.

Because the Army is confidence in the product, it has reordered the indigenous ECWCS rather than importing it from Switzerland, Vietnam, or even Sri Lanka, as it had previously done.

While AROO conducts product research, manufacturing is done by another company with which it has a partnership. AROO began delivering the next set of ECWCS last week, through its Bengaluru-based manufacturing partner – the third since completing field trials in 2017.

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