ThayerMahan unveils Ocius Bluebottle Persistent Unmanned Acoustic Surveillance Vessel

Groton, Connecticut-based undersea surveillance specialist ThayerMahan has unveiled a new version of the Ocius Bluebottle – a persistent unmanned undersea surveillance vessel that supports the Undersea Warfare objectives of the trilateral AUKUS Pillar II.

The vessel, christened Outpost TM001, delivers scalable wide-area maritime surveillance capability that mitigates a rapidly growing undersea threat, says ThayerMahan. Outpost augments traditional undersea warfare assets and can be fielded in a fraction of the construction time, for a fraction of the cost, the company adds.

Australia’s Ocius Technology Limited, based in Sydney, Australia, 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, providing near real-time actionable maritime intelligence from anywhere around the globe.

Outpost provides an immediate and rapid increase in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) surveillance capacity, the company says. This creates a force multiplier for the aircraft, ships and submarines traditionally used for the mission, and it shows how AUKUS Pillar II can leverage emerging technologies to rapidly generate naval capacity.

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.”

“They bring best-of-breed vessels, and we bring best-of-breed sonar together in one package,” said Mike Connor, ThayerMahan’s Chairman and CEO. He complimented the Ocius vessel design and manufacturing as “best-of-class”.