NDAA/EO13981 Compliant Series

Last updated 23 February 2023

BotBlox's commitment to compliance with NDAA and EO13981 

As the current geopolitical situation continues to evolve, we at BotBlox are watching closely and can see certain trends developing. We supply a number of large NATO entities (both large and small), and while we must avoid taking a political opinion, we must ensure we meet the requirements of our customers in terms of our supply chain. Of specific relevance to our industry is the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and Executive Order 13981. 

NDAA Compliance relates to the prohibition on telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from a list of specific companies in the People's Republic of China (PRC). BotBlox is an a OEM, however we do use manufacturers in the PRC for some of our boards.

Executive Order 13981 is more general, and specifically prohibits the use of components from adversary countries to be contained in UAS systems used for in missions of strategic or sensitive nature. These adversary countries are listed below. Of these countries, the only one with of consideration with respect to Electronics and UAS is China.

  • The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  • The Islamic Republic of Iran
  • The People’s Republic of China
  • The Russian Federation

BotBlox supplies telecommunications equipment that is heavily used in drones, so Executive Order 13981 is of huge consequence to our business, and thus we are taking action to ensure compliance.

Stage 1 

The first stage of this action will be the reduction of our reliance on Chinese manufacturers, which we will achieve by releasing a parallel line of our Standard Series boards that are manufactured outside the PRC. These will be labelled as our NDAA/EO13981 Compliant Series, and manufacture will take place in the EU or USA, and components sourced outside of the four adversary countries listed above. We will supply full traceability statements under NDA to show customers the locations of our supply chains.

It should be noted that initially, these NDAA/EO13981 Compliant Boards will come with a slightly higher price tag and MoQs. It should also be noted that our Rugged boards are already manufactured outside of the PRC, however they do use some passive components originating from the PRC.

Stage 2

As we reduce our reliance on China, we aim to migrate all of our series of boards towards NDAA/EO13981 compliance, at which point our mainline offerings will be compliant by default. We should be able to achieve this compliance without hugely impacting the prices we offer to our customers. It is at this stage that we will branch off our Chinese made boards as a "Low Cost Series", to provide a lower cost option to customers who are not sensitive to compliance.

Conclusion

The truth is that the Chinese electronics ecosystem is highly optimised and thus does offer competitive prices, however it is essential that our supply chain is diversified enough so that it can withstand potential trade restrictions with China, and also satisfy our customers who must ensure NDAA/EO13981 compliance.