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Australian autonomous vessel developer Ocius has announced it has sold two of its Bluebottle USVs to United States prime contractor ThayerMahan, signing a teaming agreement to continue collaborating with the company on the development of its passive array system.
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Under the agreement, the US prime contractor will acquire two Bluebottles from Australian autonomous solutions provider Ocius for AU$2.4 million, with Ocius helping to deploy the capabilities off the coast of Connecticut for marine mammal monitoring.
The announcement comes as Ocius demonstrated two of its Bluebottle USVs off the US West Coast, with Bluebottle Bonnie operating in San Diego Harbour undertaking intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities and Bluebottle Beth operating 15 nautical miles off the coast.
Beth utilised the ThayerMahan Outpost passive array system throughout the test activity, with both vessels relying on renewable energy across the five days.
The announcement came as the Royal Australian Navy accepted delivery of their sixth Bluebottle system, BB706.
At an event marking the agreement, Assistant Minister for Defence Matt Thistlethwaite reflected on the importance of Defence sector collaboration.
“Ocius is a great example of the ingenuity and cooperation of industry, academia, and defence working together. Ocius’ business, based in Randwick, is partnering with UNSW to deliver innovative uncrewed maritime surveillance vessels for the Royal Australian Navy and the safety of Australia,” Assistant Minister Thistlethwaite said.
Ocius chief executive officer Robert Dane welcomed the opportunity to partner with ThayerMahan, thanking all those who had collaborated to make the capability a success.
“Both companies share a mutual love of technology and the sea and have complementary proven products. Recently, in San Diego, engineers from both companies worked as a team to combine ThayerMahan’s TRL8 (-9) Outpost system with our TRL8 (-9) Bluebottle USVs.
“We thank the Australian government and its defence innovation programs and the RAN from the Chief of Navy down. We are especially grateful to DSTG and Royal Australian Navy Warfare Innovation Branch, now called Maritime Integrated Systems, for their visionary work over the last nine years testing and evaluating our capability.
“We have undertaken different concepts of operations (CONOPs) and surveillance payloads to make the Bluebottle USV a reliable and effective product.”
The company has construction and research development facilities at UNSW. It has developed multiple “solarsailor” prototypes and commercial passenger ferries that are in current use.
Royal Australian Navy Commodore Mick Turner welcomed the opportunity to partner with Ocius and support the development of local defence systems.
“Navy has supported the development of the Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel in Australia and now the San Diego demonstration. This sale to the USA is validation of our collaboration with Ocius and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) in developing this capability. The Bluebottle USV developed by Ocius is proving to be a game changer.”
