Defense Holdings, Inc. and Alliance Coatings Inc., Announce Distributorship Agreement For AfterGlo® Brand Photoluminescent Aviation Safety Paint

Arlington, VA (December 16 2009) — Defense Holdings, Inc.®, (DHi®), The Idea Company®, has awarded Alliance Coatings, Inc. of El Cajon, CA. Alliance Coatings a distributorship for DHi’s revolutionary, patented AfterGlo® Brand Photoluminescent (PL) Aviation Safety Paint.

This paint is used to for safety markings to improve the visibility of aircraft propellers and helicopter main and tail rotors in low-light situations. Sherwin-Williams formulates the paint for DHi and Alliance Coatings has been a distributor of Sherwin-Williams products for more than twenty years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alliance Coatings will stock, re-sell and distribute DHi’s AfterGlo® Brand Photoluminescent Paint Systems for military and civilian aerospace and aircraft sales on a non-exclusive basis throughout the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. Alliance Coatings has a network of certified paint shops in that region. In addition, Alliance will sell AfterGlo paint to authorized government buyers on its GSA schedule under NSN 8010-01-558-3002. DHi will assist Alliance with training, promotion, technical support and ongoing product development and will continue to sell AfterGlo paint and DHi AfterGlow® Brand Safety Marking Products at DHi’s AfterGlowDirect Web Store. DHi will also continue to sell its paint directly to GSA and to its existing customer base including Ratier, Haas TCM, Hartzell Propeller and others.

The AfterGlo Brand Photoluminescent Paint System (PLPS) was substantially developed under a US Navy Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Initiative. The Navy has converted all US Navy E-2/C-2 aircraft to this propeller paint scheme in 2008 following nearly five years of successful research, development, and testing. The aerospace grade PL paint is applied to the blades and blade tips of helicopter main and tail rotors and aircraft propeller blades to allow personnel to avoid injury or death from coming into contact with them in low light situations. The initial application of this paint was on the Navy’s E-2C carrier-based aircraft to help save the lives of men and women who must work at night in the vicinity of rapidly spinning propeller blades on aircraft carrier flight decks where inadvertent contact can have deadly results. The PL paint is now in use on nearly a hundred Navy aircraft and testing of the paint is now underway on helicopter main and tail rotors.

Potentially distracted by noisy, high tempo flight operations, ground and flight personnel are inadvertently struck each year by propeller blades and helicopter main and tail rotors with inevitably tragic consequences. DHi’s solution combines a revolutionary, long-lasting, ultra-bright, non-radioactive PL material with a high-quality aerospace coating and offers the option of adding an equally effective retro-reflective material to dramatically improve propeller blade visibility under all lighting conditions. The application maximizes visibility, material adhesion, durability, wear resistance and ease of installation without compromising propeller/rotor aerodynamic performance or aircraft detection. Materials using these photoluminescent phosphors are visible through Night Vision Goggles (NVGs), but they look like a normal, unlighted white-colored surface. Since the wavelength of the emitted light is outside of the range of these NVGs, use of the paint does not cause the NVGs to “bloom”, interfere with aircrew visibility, or make the aircraft more vulnerable to hostile visual detection.

Rich Martin, DHi’s President and CEO, states “Defense Holdings, Inc. is excited to be working with Alliance Coatings to broaden the market for AfterGlo® Brand Photoluminescent Paint. The numbers of inquires we are now receiving for this product has been just amazing. We think that Alliance Coatings will be a great partner for us in this endeavor. Their network of certified paint shops will surely be of great value in introducing the product to a wider range of customers and in giving them confidence in their ability to properly apply the coatings.”

Brian McKune, President of Alliance Coatings added, “We have been distributing the JetGo® and AcryGlo® Aerospace paint line since 1990. In 1996 Sherwin-Williams acquired the aerospace products of P&L. Since then the Aerospace Unit of Sherwin Williams has continued to build on a solid foundation of high performance aerospace coatings. We have confidence that Defense Holdings and Sherwin-Williams have produced a really great product that, in the end, will have saved a lot of lives. We are pleased to be part of this effort.”

Defense Holdings, Inc. (DHi), a service-disabled, veteran-owned, small business, is a technology leader specializing in the defense and homeland security markets. With headquarters in Arlington, VA, research facilities in Charlottesville, VA and production facilities in Trenton, NC, DHi works with Government agencies, universities, and industry to put timely new technologies into the hands of those who risk their own lives to protect the lives of others. DHi has pioneered the PL safety products market and is currently one of the largest installers of PL safety products in the United States. DHi’s AfterGlow® Brand PL Safety Products are installed throughout the Pentagon and in many other locations around the country. DHi has delivered over 11,000 Emergency Egress LightingTM kits for installation in all U.S. military services’ Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles. Other of our products are installed on a number of US Navy and Coast Guard ships including the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77).

Alliance Coatings, Inc. of El Cajon, CA. has been a distributor for Sherwin-Williams products for twenty years. In addition to AfterGlo® Brand PL paint, Alliance Coatings sells Sherwin-Williams high solids aircraft paint, aircraft touch-up paint, aircraft striping, urethane aircraft paint and offers aircraft painting through its network of 13 certified paint shops.