The safety risk posed by older helmets has been a hot topic since the outbreak of the war on October 7th.
The majority of the helmets issued by the IDF are from two companies (both of whom exited the helmet industry long ago): Orlite and Rabintex.
Rabintex has been the focus of a number of legal investigations both in Israel and the United States.
Unit 11741 recently discovered the warranty that was offered by Rabintex (above) — 5 years for the shell of the helmet.
The IDF continues to issue Rabintex helmets from well beyond the warrantied timeframe. Here are a few examples:
This begs the question - who is responsible for the integrity of the helmet if the warranty expired long ago? Is it the IDF? Is it the Ministry of Defense? On what basis can the IDF continue to send soldiers into battle with helmets that are well past the intended use period? Does the IDF have ballistic tests that show that Rabintex helmets from 2007 are ballistically sound?
Unit 11741 has been unable to locate warranty information from Orlite Industries, LTD.
Here’s to hoping that the IDF can ensure that every soldier receives a safe helmet in the immediate future.