ARMS

Advanced Blast & Ballistic Systems Limited has now launched a Wefunder pitch for people to indicate their interest in investing in our new US operation, Active Safety System Technologies Inc. (ASST).  The link is:

https://wefunder.com/active.safety.system.technologies.inc

We are using the ‘Testing the Waters’ facility on Wefunder in order to gauge the level of interest before setting the target raise for the round, which has to be declared on the Form C for the SEC. It is obligatory to add the following statement with this preliminary indicative ‘offer’:

“We are ‘testing the waters’ to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.”

The purpose of setting up ASST is to provide a new vehicle in the USA to market both the armoured vehicle and the eVTOL technologies to the US and Canadian markets under the same company, hence the generic technology-orientated name rather than the previous Advanced Blast & Ballistic Systems LLC which has now been closed.

Given that the US provides over 50% of the global market for both our armoured vehicle and eVTOL products we anticipate that interest from major global players in a buy-in or buy-out deal will either focus on ASST or stimulate interest in a full ABBS buy-out in due course, hence our focus now on developing the activities in the USA, which this planned funding round will support.

New Chairman – Brigadier (Ret’d) Ian Cameron-Mowat

Firstly many thanks to David Staveley who has stepped down from the ABBS Chairman role last week and resigned as Director for personal reasons, having been involved with ABBS since about 2010. Very fortuitously, the previous week we attended the Future Armoured Vehicle Survivability (FAVS) Conference in London and invited the Chairman of the conference, Brigadier (Ret’d) Ian Cameron-Mowat to act as consultant for us, so this was very rapidly up-graded to an invitation to act as Chairman for both the ABBS and the ASST Boards, which I am delighted to say he has accepted. Ian has vast experience of introducing new technology to the UK Army, including active protection systems, and has many contacts in the UK, USA and Europe that will be invaluable to us in the new phase of market development we have recently entered.

Amoured Vehicle Products

It may be the case that the recently stated US Army intention to find solutions to the threat from large IEDs, hence creating substantial ‘user-pull’ for the first time, has resulted in a specific approach to us from a major European defence industry player, with which discussions are scheduled to begin in January 2022.

If you look through the pitch on Wefunder you will see that there have been some exciting developments over the course of even the last few days.

1. DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) have issued a call for new technologies, titled “Redefining Possible”, which is exactly what our VGAM™ technology does in terms of protecting against large IED threats. The DARPA call specifically refers to ground mobility being critical to avoiding fatal attacks. We are now coordinating our approach to DARPA and the Pentagon Rapid Reaction Technology Office with our US Army CRADA manager to try to get a fully coordinated approach to funding the full development and certification of our VGAM technology. We also understand that the requirements team for a new US army vehicle has requested information on the funding and timescale required to get the VGAM system into production, so several pieces of the jigsaw puzzle appear to be coming together.So we are now planning a new campaign to promote the game-changing upgrade in tactical mobility that adding a fleet of highly IED-resistant vehicles fitted with the VGAM system would bring, meeting the stated mobility improvement objectives of both the DARPA TTO and the US Army, and get the message to the key high-level requirements personnel in the US, UK, and NATO military.
2. Following a meeting at the recent FAVS Conference in London we have had an approach from a major player with a global footprint and a strong position in armoured vehicle protection systems. Our VGAM™ system would be an excellent fit with their product range. This long-awaited development could be a very interesting, and we plan formal discussions to commence in early 2022.
3. The Technology Discovery Event that was scheduled for 4th November 2021 was postponed due to the Covid situation in the USA. It has not been re-scheduled yet, but in view of the long list of activities outlined above it may be a blessing in disguise as we will probably be very busy getting new projects under way early next year.
4. ABBS is currently starting an extensive marketing campaign for the carbon fibre reinforced belly plate which has been developed over the past 18 months both under a DSTL/DASA contract and the Innovate UK funded project, with some of our own funding thrown in as well. The result is that we have demonstrated the possibility of dealing with a 4kg mine under a Toyota Hilux and protecting the occupants from serious injury, using blast seats from our Israeli supplier to protect against spinal injuries from the Global Acceleration. The design will also take 6kg without being penetrated, which is way beyond any previous known solution for such a light civilian vehicle as the Hilux.
5. We are now proposing an extended development project with DSTL/DASA which would provide data on potential weight saving/improved peak deformation performance for UK military vehicles, where a 10% weight reduction would be regarded as ‘very interesting’. Our Hilux work suggests that up to a 30% weight reduction might be achieved, so if this proves correct we will have a very interesting product indeed, and it may be the case that the graphene technology could provide an additional potential benefit.
6. The agreement with Graphene Composites to explore the potential benefits of incorporating graphene technology into the ABBS products is now in place and specific options are being discussed.

Following several years of slow-paced evaluation of ABBS’s VGAM technology by the US Army (due to their focus on RPG/missile interception and adoption of Rafael’s Trophy system) it seems likely that we will see the pace pick up; watch this space.

eVTOL Products

We are also beginning to make in-roads with our Safety Eco-System for eVTOL Aircraft. Manufacturers have begun to accept the need for stroking crashworthy seats and we have received the backing of two leading European eVTOL companies and a major flight control system supplier in our latest R&D proposal bid.

1. Following on-site testing with a local operation developing autonomous vehicle sensor/control technology we have another new and important development in view for the eVTOL aircraft, especially when operating in the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) role.Whenever an emergency occurs in flight requiring an immediate emergency landing (such as a serious bird strike, which is going to be a big issue for these aircraft in the UAM role, or a battery fire) the first requirement for the pilot is to find an emergency landing site. The concept for our system is to use the autonomous road vehicle technology to look down from the eVTOL and continuously monitor potential emergency landing sites under the flight path.Running this idea past several major eVTOL industry players (designers, flight control system suppliers, and regulators) all were unanimous in endorsing the concept both designers and flight control system suppliers wanting to be involved in the project in an advisory capacity and keeping a view on progress and potentially incorporating the system into their aircraft. This is an excellent response and we have applied for a £0.75m collaborative R&D grant from Innovate UK to develop the technology. With the response we have from both industry players and aviation regulators, who all noted that the system will be essential when eVTOL’s become fully autonomous (i.e. flying without a pilot) we will be very disappointed if this grant application is not accepted.
2. Furthermore, at the Future Armoured Vehicle Survivability Conference two weeks ago it was stated that Denial of Service attacks are a very serious issue and many systems in armoured vehicles, not just location, rely on the GPS signal, which is very easy to disrupt or spoof. The system described above for the eVTOLs is very easily adaptable to provide a solution by matching the current view from above the vehicle with previously available views. The concept was run past the DSTL expert who raised the issue at the conference, who readily acknowledged that there was no reason this would not work to provide the missing location/navigation data. Hence we are also applying to DSTL/DASA for an R&D grant, to develop this system for them.
3. Our Israeli partner in the development of crashworthy seats for the eVTOL aircraft is close to launching them in the market having nearly completed the design work, and they have asked us to start to push the product to such as Vertical Aerospace in the UK and Volocopter in Germany, and we will do the same in the USA through ASR.We have also established an influential position in the EUROCAE/EASA activity designed to provide a new standard for crashworthy seats for eVTOLs. We instigated the formation of this Working Group at EUROCAE but a while ago the work was delegated to a US-based SAE Aircraft Seat committee which was already working on the issue. After a few meetings the Chairman decided that defining a new standard for stroking crashworthy/Energy Absorbing (EA) seats was too complex to define, so they would delete that element from the new draft standard.We believe that this would mean that a great opportunity to improve occupant safety in eVTOLs was going to be missed, with potentially serious consequences for the industry in the long term. This was also the opinion of a rotorcraft seat expert at Bell in Canada, who stated that currently the stroking seats often used in helicopters did not protect their occupants from spinal injuries. Currently stroking seats only work for mid-range occupant weights, with children, light people, and heavy people not being protected at all.Given the position of the regulators and the divergent priorities of the eVTOL designers it will be impossible to get a new stroking seat standard adopted any time soon, but we volunteered to develop a proposal for an Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) and were given free rein by the committee Chairman to pursue an industry consensus on the issue. So we are now leading what is effectively a sub-committee with support from the Bell Canada seat expert and our Israeli seat supplier, plus Safran Seats (a current major supplier to the industry).

   Now while the eVTOL designers are not obliged to follow an Aerospace Recommended Practice it is quite possible that the insurers may drive the situation indue course, either imposing very high premiums or refusing insurance at all if the ARP is not followed. This and public pressure, and maybe the city authorities who have to deal with the consequences of any UAM accidents could well be the final arbiters of what develops here, irrespective of the attitude of the regulators.

Moving Forward

As you can see, whilst there remains interest in all of our products globally, the US is the most important single market in the move towards certification and sales of our rocket-based solutions. Once on a defined, funded path to certification in the US, then this will support ABBS marketing activities for the same products to the rest of the world.

The Crowdcube Funding Pitch is now open and investment at the link below:-

https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/abbs-1/pitches/qD0KEq

There have been quite a few updates and progress since the last round in October, so we hope to welcome you onboard this exciting journey.  There is plenty to read about on the pitch deck and updates to whet your appetites and show how ABBS aims to make a real difference in protection for occupants of both land vehicles and eVTOL aircraft.

So why not Join Us and Save Lives

Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. Please Invest Aware.

As a reminder, we will soon be launching a new funding round on Crowdcube as we move towards commercialisation of our offerings.  If you are interested in finding out more, then you can pre-register your interest via the dedicated Crowdcube page (capital at risk as always)

Crowdcube are still coming back with final questions on the due diligence before the new pitch can go live but we are nearly there I think. Part of the problem is that there has been a succession of new developments that we want to get into the pitch so we have had to update it twice, which means new questions from Crowdcube each time. Hopefully we should be able to get the pitch live next week.

Blast Test on the Hilux Belly Plate Design

Following the complete failure of the first test using the 6mm thick main belly plate last year we have now successfully tested a modified version using exactly the same 6mm plates which failed last time. A very heavy 6kg test on a jig (heavy because of the ground conditions) gave about 230mm deformation without penetration, whilst a 4kg test gave only 50mm permanent deformation at the back face, with a jump height within the performance limits of stroking blast seats.

The jump height of the 6kg test was far more than blast seats could mitigate so whilst we could deal with the penetration threat with 6kg it would need the active Linear Rocket Motors to control the jump height which could make the system too expensive for many light vehicle applications.

So the emerging conclusion is that we have a 4kg capable solution, which we believe is considerably better than current options, probably twice what anyone else has achieved on such a light vehicle.

Furthermore, we now have good data on the novel combination of elements we have used in this belly plate design, which will be further elucidated during the current UK MOD DSTL/DASA test programme which will be completed over the next 2 or 3 months.

We think that we have discovered a potentially patentable combination of design elements that have not been used together before and they may provide a desirable mixture of both shock attenuation and reduced deformation/weight, albeit in a more complicated structure than a plain sheet of armour steel.

This may prove ideal for use with larger armoured vehicle designs, particularly combined with the active Linear Rocket Motors.  We will see what the market thinks about it.

Global Marketing Channel Development

There has been extensive development of the global marketing channel and strengthening of the ABBS team since the first Crowdcube round nine months ago. We now have strong representation covering the whole Asia-Pacific region via a new recruit to the Team, Steve O’Connor (based in Singapore), with specific agreements either in place or being discussed for Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa, many ex-French Colonial countries in North, West and East Africa, and options for the UAE and maybe Saudi Arabia. There is  already our existing operation in the USA of course.

Our new agents in India and Turkey are being very pro-active and have had good responses from their key targets which we are following up and there are potential joint manufacturing operation opportunities in both these locations, as there is in the Middle East.

The eVTOL Zero-Zero Safety System

There has been a real, game-changing breakthrough in this market via a proposed agreement with another major US player in the market. No more information to release at this time but the deal should be signed and sealed within the next two weeks.

We have also been approached by a local UK eVTOL project looking to start a programme to demonstrate the effectiveness of a Zero-Zero safety system on their aircraft if their funding from a Stock Exchange listing comes through.

These two items match beautifully together.

US Army/Pentagon Project Proposal

Again, we can’t say much, only that a major proposal has been made (not by us) for a significant, long term development programme relating to the land vehicle protection system.

New Enquiry for Blast Protected Containers

We have received an un-solicited proposal for blast proof containers.  This is something we know well in terms of the technology used currently, and there is direct read-across from the vehicle belly plate design described above. This could either come to nothing or it could become a major new development line for a standard, high volume product using our existing technology, so it will be interesting to see how it develops.

BFBS Video on You Tube

In case you haven’t picked it up yet, the British Forces Broadcasting Service video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5sbBKdftNQ has now had over 768,000 views since 11^th January, and has raised a lot of interest, including that from the Pentagon. Excellent free publicity potentially leading to major funding for development, which can’t be bad.

New Products From Other Suppliers Added to Our Product Portfolio.

• We have an agreement with an Israeli supplier of armoured vehicle blast seats to develop at their own cost crashworthy stroking seats for use in eVTOL aircraft and they have now appointed someone to oversee the design and development of this product specifically for the eVTOL industry. These seats will be offered to the market as an integral part of our safety package.
• We are in the midst of agreeing heads of terms for the supply of a novel fire resistant prepreg for battery boxes for eVTOL’s and other fire-resistant applications on the aircraft from an associated UK prepreg manufacturer.This new prepreg type is much better than the current standard phenolic prepreg systems which are unpleasant to use due to the toxic ingredients in the material.Containing fires in the very large battery boxes used in the eVTOL’s is a serious issue, and this material has already been certified for use in the application. We may also supply other products in the supplier’s prepreg range for other applications in other markets.

We will soon be launching a second funding round on CrowdCube.

As a result of the previous interest through CrowdCube and also our appearance on Forces TV (which had over 700,000 views); we have received a substantial number of new contacts globally interested in either using or marketing our technology in the armoured vehicle sector.

This has enabled us to establish good coverage of immediate potential in Africa, the Middle East,India, Pakistan and the Asia Pacific regions where current conflicts mean that mine and IED threats regularly cause casualties.

Hence, the belly plate programme for the Toyota Hilux, which is expected to lead to first sales later this year, is already demanding increased marketing and technical support in these regions. Marketing to a number of interested operations in Africa and the Middle East is only awaiting the results of our final Hilux proof-of-concept test which is now expected to be in early April.

The Hilux belly-plate design has become more sophisticated than originally envisaged in order to optimise both the performance and weight. Much FEA (Finite Element Analysis) of the structure has been undertaken to optimise the design, prior to multiple jig testing (due at the end of March) to prove the design, followed by the full Hilux test in April.This has been a complex design to optimise, especially as the FEA cannot be completely relied upon to give 100% correct results under the extreme blast conditions. Therefore, multiple series of tests are required to demonstrate the suitability of the different options. These include both static and drop testing of various reinforcing beam constructions to identify their relative effectiveness, followed by finally proving the optimal solution by the more expensive full scale blast tests.

The development of the Active VTOL Crash Prevention Limited (AVCP) Active Zero-Zero Safety System which was originally designed to use a combination of a large parachute and retro-rockets has been on the back burner for the last 18 months because of the lack of funding to pursue it.

However, a new development has simplified the system concept and new products becoming available has brought forward the need to re-start marketing of the concept, and the new products, as follows:

Stroking Crashworthy Seat Supply and Simplification of the Zero-Zero System.
AVCP has obtained a supply of stroking crashworthy aircraft seats which provide protection from spinal injuries in a crash. The availability of stroking seats has enabled the simplification of the eVTOL Safety System by removing the large parachute and replacing it with a small drogue which can be deployed at any aircraft speed.

The result of these changes is that the whole system becomes lighter, cheaper, and simpler to design and install on aircraft and certify for service.

This development on its own is enough to justify renewed marketing activity for the concept, but the addition of the stroking seats to the product portfolio can potentially provide earlier sales than the main system itself, and there is also another product that may generate short term revenue whilst requiring no significant investment in R&D.

Fire Resistant Prepreg System for Battery Box Fire Containment and Cabin Components.
ABBS is has entered an agreement to distribute a novel prepreg composite system which has exceptional fire resistance. This has already been certified for use as a battery fire containment system for eVTOL aircraft and is being evaluated for similar use in road vehicles. It can also be used for aircraft/rail/road transport cabin interior and firewall applications.

This composite material has excellent Health and Safety and ‘green’ credentials, unlike the phenolic resin system generally used for these applications to date, which has serious toxicity and skin irritation problems and is currently being phased out of use where possible.  The resin is made from a waste product from processing sugar or other organic materials.

The UK-based manufacturer of this prepreg is owned by ex-Advanced Composite Group personnel with whom Roger Sloman has a strong relationship; and an agreement has been reached to allow ABBS to develop a joint global marketing exercise to maximise the exploitation of the potential that exists, based initially on the strong position that AVCP has in the worldwide eVTOL market.

EASA/CAA and FAA Philosophy on Aircraft Safety
It may come as a surprise to the un-initiated that the regulations on crashworthiness of aircraft only deal with ‘survivable’ crashes, and no attention is given to ‘un-survivable’ accidents, which for helicopters is anything over a descent rate of 9.1m/s (30ft/s). This 9.1m/s descent rate is chosen arbitrarily as being the design criterion that the aircraft must meet and keep the G levels experienced by the occupants to safe levels. Any descent rate higher than this is deemed ‘un-survivable’ although there are many examples of higher descent rate helicopter accidents where occupants have survived with only relatively minor injuries due to the use of stroking crashworthy seats.

Hence you might imagine that the regulatory bodies would mandate the use of stroking seats, and we have proposed this to EASA, but as a matter of principle they prefer to leave the aircraft designers to adopt whatever solutions they want to meet the overall G-level targets.

So, by limiting the crashworthiness design criterion to a 9.1m/s Ground Impact Velocity (GIV) the authorities currently ignore the potential to provide protection above this 9.1m/s rate, which we strongly reject as a limit, and we are pushing EASA to re-consider this position.The whole point of our Zero-Zero system is that it is the only physically possible concept that is capable of providing full protection from any descent rate up to 25m/s, which we plan is the maximum that any aircraft will attain under the small drogue parachute in our system. Hence as far as eVTOL’s are concerned we believe that adopting our Zero-Zero system means that essentially there should be NO LOSS OF CONTROL OR POWER LOSS eVTOL ACCIDENTS THAT ARE NOT SURVIVABLE.

In due course we will propose to EASA a new standard based on our system which will provide full protection in a 25m/s descent rate scenario. Since safety is universally agreed to be critical if the eVTOL market is going to attain its full potential, we believe that in due course the validity of the AVCP approach will eventually be recognised, but it may take a few serious accidents that kill or injure people for the industry and the certification authorities to accept it. In practice it may actually be the insurers and relevant city authorities who bear some financial responsibility for the risks that drive the market to this conclusion.

AVCP is currently the only company proposing ‘another way down’ that realistically deals with essentially all the emergency loss-of control scenarios that eVTOL’s will experience that result in an excessive GIV.

The prepreg composite system has already been certified for use as a battery fire containment system for eVTOL aircraft and is ready to be marketed to eVTOL aircraft designers both as an improved means of protecting the aircraft from battery fires, and for interior panels and components.

Given satisfactory results from the forthcoming Hilux blast testing it is expected that current interest in the solution will result in specific enquiries and sales starting in 2021. Some further development may be required to produce a complete kit for the vehicle which is likely initially to include stroking blast seats, while an active floor system could be a later addition. Also, if required by the customers a form of active impulse counteraction to reduce the jump height/global acceleration level could be developed based on current ABBS knowledge.

The stroking crashworthy aircraft seats will require specific design by our seat supplier to take account of the characteristics demanded by the eVTOL aircraft manufacturers.  These will therefore take a while to bring to market, dependent on the design considerations and regulatory pressure. Again, AVCP is responsible within the EASA/EUROCAE committee framework for drafting a new certification standard for stroking seats for eVTOL’s.

Finally, the ABBS Board has decided that the operation has reached the stage where it is deemed appropriate to explore the potential for deals with major aerospace or defence Groups.

• Specifically, the AVCP Ltd. eVTOL Safety System may be good candidate for a JV or a partial buyout/buy-in by a large aerospace company which has a stroking seat manufacturing operation, and this will be the early focus of the activity with a handful of the obvious potentially interested parties.
• Equally, given the successful testing of a 6kg-capable belly plate system for the Toyota Hilux there is expected to be a surge of interest later this year from major defence-related operations, and we need to be prepared with options identified and evaluated if this happens.

Hence, we have decided to engage KBS Corporate to prepare fully professional approaches to identified major industry players and assist ABBS in considering any resulting options. Our emphasis will be on generating potential buy-in scenarios, initially for the full Zero-Zero eVTOL safety system, and then later for the armoured vehicle technologies rather than any full buy-out scenarios which would compromise any recent investments under the EIS scheme. Maximising the longer-term returns for our shareholders is always our primary objective.

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