49 fifth and final Bluebottle as part of a contract worth AU$ 4.9 million. “In addition to the direct manufacturing contract for the RAN, we’ve also been under contract with border forces, as well as a demonstration contract with the Australian Army,” explains Robert Dane, founder and CEO of Ocius Technology. “In that demo, we did 10 days of ISR around an archipelago, with hi-res scans from two USVs informing them on key strategic questions such as where they could or couldn’t land a helicopter. “Each boat travelled 1000 nautical miles, including the 350 nautical miles to and from the archipelago, without any fossil fuels. The Army told us no crewed boat was capable of that.” The company also carried out demonstrations earlier this year for Australian marine parks, looking out for Australians fishing illegally in protected waters. Such missions saw a pair of Bluebottles integrating radios so that their operators could talk to the lawbreakers over satcom. The result of these was a notable reduction in the incidences of illegal fishing, partly because crewed ships are far larger and hence easier to spot over long distances, enabling illegal fishing crews to make an early escape. Bluebottles, by contrast, can lower their sails to hide behind wave heights, and sit undetected for hours recording evidence against the crews. “We also have a contract with JAMSTEC [the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology],” Dane adds. “We’ve just finished a load of proving with bathymetric equipment for seabed mapping and sub-bottom profiling, and we’re now sending units to a place 800 miles south of Tokyo and 800 miles north of Guam, where there are two active volcanoes. “They haven’t been surveyed in years because they’re too dangerous for crewed ships. We will survey them for 90 days with 35 m spacing between survey rows, 200600 m above the seafloor.” Ocius Bluebottle USV | Digest The Ocius Bluebottle is a 6.8 m-long vessel powered by solar, wind and waves, enabling a theoretically indefinite mission endurance (Images courtesy of Ocius) In one demo, we did 10 days of ISR where each boat travelled 1000 nautical miles without any fossil fuels. The Army told us no crewed boat was capable of that Uncrewed Systems Technology | August/September 2023 When wind-sailing is not needed, the sail folds down electromechanically into the hull
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