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PODCAST: Aussie start-up providing leading edge autonomous maritime capability – Robert Dane, OCIUS, and Daniel Dent, Thales

Naval
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PODCAST: Aussie start-up providing leading edge autonomous maritime capability – Robert Dane, OCIUS, and Daniel Dent, Thales

Australia’s defence industry start-up ecosystem is steadily growing with a number of stand out performers designing, building and testing leading-edge capabilities. In this podcast, Robert Dane, CEO of OCIUS, and Daniel Dent, research and development projects manager, underwater systems, Thales Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss the growing role of Australia’s defence industry start-ups in providing a fundamental input to capability.

Australia’s defence industry start-up ecosystem is steadily growing with a number of stand out performers designing, building and testing leading-edge capabilities. In this podcast, Robert Dane, CEO of OCIUS, and Daniel Dent, research and development projects manager, underwater systems, Thales Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss the growing role of Australia’s defence industry start-ups in providing a fundamental input to capability.

Robert Dane, chief executive and founder of NSW business OCIUS Technology, and Daniel Dent, research and development projects manager, underwater systems, Thales Australia, join host Phil Tarrant to discuss the potential for unmanned surface vessels (USVs) in the defence space and how the technology is continuing to expand to play a key role in filling capability gaps.

During this podcast, Dane and Dent discuss the increasingly powerful role of autonomous systems like the OCIUS Bluebottle USV system will play in the future battlespace, as independent surveillance sensors for naval task groups and broader maritime surveillance operations. 

The pair will also briefly discuss how the autonomous data gathering and communications platform offers a unique solar sail, continuous and wide coverage, reduced operational costs and harvests all the weather on the ocean – the sun, the wind and the waves – so it can advance under all conditions and can remain at sea for months at a time.

Dane and Dent will focus on the maximising the use of the Defence Innovation Hub Grants and the role government support plays in helping the nation’s emerging defence industry start-ups transition their ideas from concept to implementation. 

Finally, Dane and Dent will discuss the role global prime Thales has played in helping bring its unique autonomous system and ASW capabilities to supporting the development of this next-generation capability package.

Enjoy the podcast, 

The Defence Connect team

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Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: SPOTLIGHT: Lockheed Martin Australia’s priorities, leadership and life after service, with Jeremy King
Episode 10: THE PROGRESS REPORT: Leadership, mentorship and life at sea – Commander Melanie Lennard on 17 years in the Royal Australian Navy
Episode 9: PODCAST: Australia’s munitions manufacturing push at Land Forces 2026, with NIOA Group’s Robert Nioa
Episode 8: PODCAST: EOS showcases new interceptor and layered drone defence at Land Forces 2026, with Lee Kormany
Episode 7: CONTESTED GROUND: The information advantage – how AI is reshaping influence, competition and power
Episode 6: PODCAST: Next-generation equipment at Land Forces 2026, with Aquaterro’s Graeme Bulte
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Defence electronics supply chains, counterfeit components and shortages
Episode 4: PODCAST: AUKUS, China and Australia’s defence industrial future, with former prime minister Scott Morrison
Episode 3: CONTESTED GROUND: When AI goes rogue – the emerging threat Australia isn’t ready for
Episode 2: PODCAST: Frontier AI, cyber warfare, and defending Australia’s military networks, with Wendi Whitmore and Tom Scully