News

July 2024 Update

19 July, 2024

Bryna Simmons

1. SEA1200 Integrated Investment Plan Recognition

2. Teaming Agreement with BMT to offer Data as a Service (DaaS)

3. Expansion of Bluebottle Fleet with RAN Contracts

4. Deployment of Bluebottles for Naval Operations

5. Visit by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Industry

6. Innovation in Bluebottle Design and Production

7. Expansion into International Markets

8. Royal New Zealand Navy Collaboration

9. Board of Directors Strengthened

10. Appointment of new Chief Financial Officer/Company Secretary

I am very pleased to report since our last update:

1. SEA1200 Integrated Investment Plan Recognition. Ocius has been included in the Integrated Investment Plan under SEA1200, marking a significant milestone in our journey. This initiative recognises Ocius' Bluebottles alongside other autonomous platforms for development by the Navy. Read more

2. Teaming Agreement with BMT for Data as a Service (DaaS). Ocius has entered into a teaming agreement with BMT to offer Data as a Service (DaaS). A demonstration of this collaboration is scheduled for Oct/Nov in Bass Strait. Read more

3. Expansion of Bluebottle Fleet with RAN Contracts. Recent contracts with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have resulted in orders for eight additional Bluebottles, bringing the total to fifteen. BB708, the first of the enhanced 6% bigger models - see point 6 below - is now being fitted out at Randwick.

4. Deployment of Bluebottles for Naval Operations. In June, a contract for Operations was signed to start operations from an Australian Naval Base on 1 July 2024. As contracted, on 1 July, several Bluebottles were deployed from the base and reached their mission area a few days later and have been on station since. I am immensely proud of the team’s efforts in setting up the base, getting the boats ready and deploying them on time. This achievement underscores our commitment to timely execution and operational excellence.

5. Visit by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Industry. On 20 May, Hon Richard Marles Deputy Prime Minister and Hon Pat Conroy the Minister for Defence Industry, visited our boatbuilder Brett Van Munster’s facility in the Hunter. BB708 was still in the new mould but BB BEACON was there for repairs and upgrades after its trip to Japan and was on display for both Ministers to inspect.

From left: Lloyd Breckenridge Chief Engineer Ocius, Robert Dane CEO Ocius, Smith Davies school-based apprentice, Hon Richard Marles Deputy Prime Minister, Hon Dan Repacholi Federal Member for Hunter at Australian Parliament, Joel Beashal school-based apprentice, Hon Pat Conroy Minister for Defence Industry, Brett Van Munster boatbuilder and Ian Milliner BD Ocius Defence.

6. Innovation in Bluebottle Design and Production. Our original production mould for our 2020 Defence Innovation Hub contract was designed to build five BBs starting with BETH. It has finished up building fifteen Bluebottles.

BB707, the last of BETH 1.0 vessels out of the old mould. BB707 is now commissioned, sea trialled off Sydney and on its way to Operations.

To meet current and predicted production demands, Ocius has invested in a new mould capable of building >100 vessels and at a rate of up to one/week. As this would set the external shape of the next hundred Bluebottles, we undertook an extensive design review over several weeks with our naval architects, boatbuilder and our Engineering, Production and Operations Teams and Royal Australian Navy. In the end the BETH 2.0 class was born.

BETH 2.0 boats are 6% bigger and have several naval architect tweaks giving them 30% more righting moment, the ability to carry another 300kg of payload and sail that little bit better. For the boatbuilder and our Engineering and Production teams BETH 2.0 boats will be easier to build and ‘fit out’. They will use the same rudder/flipper, winch and internal mechatronics and power systems and sit on the same size trailer, fit into a standard shipping container, be towed by a standard SUV and launch and recover from a council boat ramp. The first BETH 2.0 boat out of the new mould is BB708 and it is in our Randwick facility now and begins sea trials in August.

BB 708 out of our new mould, with livery. You can see a slightly longer bow.

7. Expansion into International Markets.

Ocius has secured sales to Thayer Mahan in the USA. Read more

James Hodgson, Ocius Head of Operations has been over there conducting training and running short missions. Already the BB’s superior performance in all conditions has been compared favourably to US competitor’s products which Thayer Mahan has used. Lloyd Breckenridge our Chief Engineer takes over this week to support initial operations with the Thayer Mahan Outpost sonar array system

In early April 2024 in Washington at Sea Air and Space Expo. Joe Rappaport Thayer Mahan, Kevin Lopez Thayer Mahan, Mike Connor CEO Thayer Mahan, Robert Dane CEO Ocius, Nick Rozenauers Non-defence BD Ocius, Peter Wlodarczyk Ocius CTO, Ian Milliner Ocius Defence BD

In late April 2024 in San Diego at Exponential Expo, Ocius and Thayer Mahan conducted live demonstrations from our booth showing BONNIE in the busy Harbour and BETH 15NM off the coast

From left: Peter Wlodarczyk Ocius CTO, Mike Varney Thayer Mahan Defence BD, Ian Milliner Ocius Defence BD, Nick Rozenauers Ocius Non-Defence BD, Josh Grosser Ocius Mechanical Engineer, Tyler Bentley Thayer Mahan, Andy Stockwell Thayer Mahan, James Hogdson Ocius Head of Operations.

BB BONNIE off San Diego Convention Centre waiting for orders while BETH is 15NM off the coast deploying and towing an array to varying depths sustainably for five days.

8. Royal New Zealand Navy Collaboration. BELLONA has completed its six-month trial with the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and is heading back to Auckland for planned maintenance.

The vessel will continue to be operated by the RNZN. Therefore, we have trained another group of their personnel from HMNZS MATATAUA in the operation and maintenance of the Bluebottle USVs

RNZN personnel training at Ocius offices in Randwick

9. Board of Directors Strengthened. I am pleased to advise Catherine Lloyd CA has accepted an invitation to join the Ocius Board. Catherine was our Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary and made a great contribution to the Ocius management team. We welcome her extensive financial and governance expertise to our Board.

Catherine has a Bachelor of Business from UTS, is a Chartered Accountant and a Member of the Governance Institute of Australia and over 25 years-experience in finance and governance in both the listed and not-for-profit environments. She has held roles including, CFO, Company Secretary, Non-executive Director, Committee Chair and Treasurer across public companies, private companies and not-for-profit organisations.

10. Appointment of new Chief Financial Officer/Company Secretary. I am also pleased to advise that Tammy Goh CA has been appointed our new Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary adding her wealth of experience in financial management to our leadership team

Tammy is an accredited Chartered Accountant with over 10 years of experience in Financial Controller and Manager roles in SMEs, preceded by 8 years in practice. She holds a B.E. in Chemical Engineering and a Master's in Commerce (Accounting) from the University of New South Wales. Her career spans emerging Australian IT firms and established global digital companies, where she has managed finance functions and streamlined financial activities.

For more details on these updates, please visit our website

Finally, as always, I extend my gratitude to our Board and shareholders for their continued support and feedback.

Special recognition goes to our dedicated engineers for their relentless pursuit of excellence in enhancing Bluebottle capabilities. I am not able to discuss the work they are doing in detail, but I can say they continuously pursue the goal of making our Bluebottles better.

Some of the developments they have instituted which are routine now include i) monitoring and graphing the ‘health’ of multiple components onboard so as to diagnose and predict the probability of a part failing before it fails, ii) diverting and sharing the work with redundant or other systems and iii) fixing problems on board a Bluebottle 100s of miles to sea, very similar to NASA engineers fixing problems on the Mars Rover from Earth

Congrats to all our Engineering Teams.

Robert Dane CEO 19 July 2024