Turning the Corner on Maritime Autonomous Systems in Australia: The Ocius Case
I had a chance to meet with Robert Dane, CEO of Ocius, and his team during the 2025 Navy League meetings held the first week of April 2025.
I have visited their original facility in Sydney on an earlier visit to Australia and have watched their progress with interest. As an Australian company, they have been a key part of gaining the trust of the Australian government to begin using maritime autonomous systems.
Their bluebottle USVs are designed for persistent ISR missions built into a very robust surface vessel. I discussed these vessels in more detail in earlier articles or one can go onto their website to get more details with regard to the boats and their payloads.
Last Fall, during my visit to the head of the Maritime Border Command, it was clear he wanted to have access to these vessels to support his various missions. These platforms carry various ISR payloads, and by being able to monitor fishing areas and coastlines, the various missions of the Maritime Border Command are facilitated, as the manned assets can be used much more effectively.
Dane indicated that the Royal Australian Navy has ordered 15 Bluebottles, and 13 of them are being used by the Maritime Border Command operating out of the Port of Darwin. He indicated as well that the Royal New Zealand Navy was now using the Bluebottles as well as a leading global maritime surveillance company as well.
In my view, this suggests that the Australian government has turned the corner on the use of maritime autonomous systems and opens up new possibilities for the country in using such systems.
A member of Dane’s team in discussing the change of attitude with regard to use, highlighted that it has been an uphill battle. And he noted that when Bluebottles first operated out of Darwin harbor, the Harbour Master wanted the boats to be piloted out of the harbor. Now people in Darwin are used to their operations and have accepted them as part of harbor life. By building upon such experience, the possibilities of expanded maritime autonomous system use are enhanced.
An interesting development involving the use of Bluebottles has been the acquisition of these vessels by ThayerMahan.
The press release from 8 April 2025 at the Navy League event highlighted the development:
(Oxon Hill, MD – April 8, 2025) – Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), joined by Australian Ambassador Dr. Kevin Rudd, ThayerMahan Chairman and CEO Mike Connor, and Ocius CEO Dr. Robert Dane, christened a persistent unmanned undersea surveillance vessel that supports the objectives of AUKUS Pillar II, part of the trilateral security partnership between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
The vessel, Groton, CT-based ThayerMahan’s Outpost TM001 delivers scalable wide-area maritime surveillance capability that mitigates a rapidly growing undersea threat. Outpost, which has been called ‘The future of our Navy’, augments traditional undersea warfare assets. It can be fielded in a fraction of the construction time, for a fraction of the cost.
Australia’s Ocius Technology Limited, based in Alexandria, manufactures Outpost’s 22-foot hull that is powered by solar, wind, and wave energy. The uncrewed surface vessel carries ThayerMahan’s deep-towed passive acoustic array and unrivaled processing technology, that provide near real-time actionable contact reports from anywhere around the globe.
Courtney referred to ThayerMahan Chairman and CEO Mike Connor, a retired U.S Navy Vice Admiral and Commander of the U.S. Sub Force, as a “prophet” for his early efforts to explain the need for and capabilities of unmanned vessels when he appeared before Courtney’s Seapower Subcommittee while at the Pentagon.
“Back then we didn’t know what [Mike Connor] was talking about, but obviously he was a prophet and ahead of his time,” Courtney told a crowd of military and industrial leaders during the christening. “Obviously the success of ThayerMahan, in collaboration not just locally in the submarine capital of the world in southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island and now internationally, is another example of just how on target he and his amazing team of millennials and GenZers are. They are doing important work in ways that no one could imagine even recently.”
Outpost provides an immediate and rapid increase in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) surveillance capacity. This creates a force multiplier for the aircraft, ships and submarines traditionally used for the mission, and it creates a path to success for AUKUS Pillar II.
Australian Ambassador to the United States, Dr Kevin Rudd, said: “The Outpost system reflects innovation writ large. It is a deployable, flexible, all-purpose platform powered by wind, solar and wave with multiple applications for civilian and military uses.”
Robert Dane, CEO and Executive Director of Ocius Technology, said the partnership with ThayerMahan represents a blending that will benefit multiple nations. “Our focus now is to work together to deliver this capability to a number of countries around the world supporting AUKUS, but also other countries,” Dane said, noting the rapidly changing geopolitical environment. “We have two companies with similar ideologies and an agile ability to deliver and that is what we are all about.”
Connor complimented the Ocius vessel design and manufacturing as “best-of-class”, and summarized the relationship between the companies. “They bring best-of-breed vessels, and we bring best-of-breed sonar together in one package.”
Outpost® is an autonomous, mobile long-dwell system that meets top level Navy requirements for Deep Water Passive Surveillance. With production based in southeastern Connecticut, ThayerMahan has drawn top talent to the region and plans to fill many new highly skilled job openings in 2025. ThayerMahan has committed to meet growing surveillance needs with plans to double manufacturing floor capacity. ThayerMahan is positioned to have a fleet of unmanned autonomous systems in service within two years.
Featured photo: Australian Ambassador Dr Kevin Rudd, Congressman Joe Courtney, Ocius CEO Dr Robert Dane, ThayerMahan Chairman and CEO Mike Conner
Bluebottle USVs and Carving Out a Way Ahead within Australian Security and Defence