Kevlar Helmet-Orlite but which country-Israel,Ireland,Export African???

This helmet has seriously puzzled me and have been to various websites but still no answer as to its identity or country of issue.

Some say its an Orlite M76,others and Orlite OR201.

When it arrived the previous owner seriously wanted to hide its identity as both interior labels have been overpainted in some weird black substance-have tried turps,meths,lighter fluid to try to clean this horrible mess off and have now resorted to NITROMORS paint remover which has cleaned up one label but not the other.

Obvious from this that its Israeli made but from the various websites i gather these were exported to pretty much every African country and also that the Irish Army used them.

just a shot south african? A european name.

Chris

zvez wrote:just a shot south african? A european name.

Chris

That or Irish i was thinking.

Hi Guys,

If its green in colour its probably Israeli. If its brown in colour its probably South African. The South Africans copied this off an Israeli helmet but it was brown in colour. Im 98% sure South African. I have the green and brown version. They are parabat helmets.....

Kind Regards
Militaryman

Also remember that these helmets were available commercially at one stage - I recall them being advertised in SOF Magazine in the late '80s or 90's - so it may not necessarily have been military issued at all.

Good point. Its a pity they label isn't visible but the rest checks out rivets in the correct place etc. If it is a copy / commercial its pretty good.

Ive now trawled around 30 helmet websites and still none the wiser other than its Israeli made.

Will have to try and uncover some of the other label but that black crap is very hard to remove.

Im pretty sure its Israeli issue as most of their gear when disposed of is marked with black crap to hide its identity-webbing for example always has those black dots over various details.

http://militaryheadgear.net/site/america-america/39-chile-chile/275-casco-or-201-or-201-helmet.html

http://www.cascoscoleccion.com/portada.htm

http://www.gostak.co.uk/composites/israel/

A few of the better helmet sites i found.

Only the early South African helmets were made in Israel and were green over painted brown, The South African made helmets have differances the main one is that S A made helmet liners are held in with screws not rivets.as you can see from the photos below.Yours could be Colombian their military bought them from Israel too