Introduction
Modern protective clothing needs to meet a variety of multifunctional requirements and offer a very high level of protection as well as remarkable comfort and wearability, influencing the wearer’s physical performance which puts it far beyond usual definitions of comfort. The demand for multifunctional properties makes it necessary to develop and improve fibre and textile materials and structures (suits, uniforms, …). Introduction of nanotechnology and the use of a variety of (wearable) sensors / embedded electronics and processors turn traditional protection into a value added market posing ever increasing challenges to researchers and engineers at universities, institutes and industry. Design and manufacturing of sophisticated interactive protective textiles and clothing, meeting very tight specifications, has to be done taking into account cost-effectiveness, environmental issues and even the need to be applied to military as well as civil purposes.
Developments in protective clothing for military, … are being made today at a faster pace than at any time in history. New dress concepts which harness nanotechnology and other advanced technologies have been devised with a view to helping the performance of soldiers by improving their ballistic protection, reducing the weight, optimizing camouflage capabilities, ameliorating protection to multiple threats from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. So military clothing has appearance and performance characteristics which contrast sharply with those of uniforms worn about 10 to 20 years ago. Particularly integration of (electronic) sensors, actuators, communicating systems, … enables to respond to a variety of hazards and terrorism threats by creating clothing acting as a viable platform providing situation awareness, increasing effectiveness and safety, e.g., as a result of increased manoeuvrability and anticipation by sharing information in a network even at the lowest command level.