RE: New ballast system
This is "not very similar" to the SUBTECH Albacore and Marlin: with those systems, you need to surface using the motors to pump air into the bag, my system is different, you just pump water out of the bag even at depth creating a weak vacuum inside the WTC. When the narrow tube is in contact the the air, it sucks some air but this is not necessary to emerge, just to inflate the bag to help it recover its size and filling the vacuum inside the WTC, and with no valves (you need valves with the those SUBTECH systems).
Regards