RAN announces contract to acquire five Bluebottle USVs
29 November 2022
Ocius announced it has signed a contract with RAN to acquire for the navy to acquire five Bluebottle USVs in this financial year. RADM Pete Quinn made the announcement, saying “Over five years as HNC it has been fantastic being involved with Ocius and seeing Australian technology at the forefront. Systems like Ocius Bluebottles are really important to our strategy. We have vast areas we need to patrol, and we have to and will be investing in uncrewed platforms that will be out there persistently conducting surveillance.”
Ocius CEO Robert Dane said “This contract makes Ocius a defence Prime; not a very big one…but from little things big things grow” and “to be a long-lasting Defence Prime we need two things: innovative products and people. And any innovative product will one day not be innovative – it will become the benchmark so Ocius must have continuous innovation of our Bluebottles, iDrogue, Loyal Shipmate and other products and create a culture where our people, University of NSW academics and subcontractors feel the excitement of innovation.”
Dane also noted that in the last 15 months, five Bluebottles under a Defence Innovation Hub contract had completed nearly 23,000NM which was equivalent to around the world at the equator. Ocius shareholders and staff were joined by RAN, UNSW and Industry partners to celebrate the Christening of the two Bluebottles BARRA and BOMBORA.
Source: APDR