While the U.S. cautiously experiments with small unmanned craft for extended missions – like the mysterious SHARC photographed off Florida in June – Australia is sending them out on patrol. Except that the Bluebottle, made by Australian company Ocius Technology, is an altogether bigger, faster and more powerful vessel than its American cousin, or the Russian imitator.

“Other Unmanned Surface Vessels do not have the same payload, power and performance we do,” says Robert Dane, CEO of Ocius.

A prototype Bluebottle uncrewed vessel approaches Sydney Harbor Bridge

The idea with such Unmanned Surface Vessels or USVs is that they should operate for as long as possible for ‘boring jobs’ as Dane calls them such as long-distance patrols. Ideally they should be able to go for weeks or months for without refueling or recharging. Sydney-based Ocius Technology first developed a concept for an unmanned craft able to stay at sea indefinitely in 2007, and in 2015 the Defense Science and Technology Group awarded a contract for the first Bluebottle prototype, known as Bob. The autonomous, five-mete long vessel which can carry a six-hundred-pound sensor payload, was demonstrated in 2017.

Indefinite endurance demands the ability to harvest energy form the environments. While the SHARC/Wave Glider uses wave energy for propulsion and solar power for its electronics, the Bluebottle – named for an Australian jellyfish — harnesses wind, wave and solar power. While the Wave Glider can only make 1 to 2 knots, Dane says the Bluebottle can make 5 knots.

“We can get out of currents and in fact can navigate in them,” says Dane. “We have the ability to launch from a boat ramp without a support vessel. Our keel winch enables us to lower a payload to varying and significant depths... all of which Wave Glider can’t. Plus our design gives us an order of magnitude, meaning ten times as much, more payload capacity”

The Bluebottle's patented underwater passive wave oscillator or flipper harvests wave energy

Lowering a payload to depth is highly significant because one of Bluebottle’s tasks will be looking for submarines. The ocean is divided into layers of varying temperature, with sound being effectively trapped in each layer. Submarine commanders take advantage of this, so sonar needs to be lowered to a suitable level. The Bluebottle carries a thin line sonar array made by Thales.

In addition, Ocius have teamed up with Sentient Vision to incorporate their ViDAR, an AI-based system which monitors camera images to detect and identify objects too small for the human eye. This will enable Bluebottle to pick out aircraft, ships, and other objects of interest and inform a human operator in real time, rather than simply acting as a remote camera that needs to be monitored.

In July, one of the Bluebottle prototypes, known as Bob, made its first journey without direct human supervision, traveling a hundred miles from Botany Bay in Sydney to Ulladulla Harbor in New South Wales. Bluebottles they have automatic collision avoidance and require only occasional human oversight. They are now cleared to operate autonomously in Australian waters.

The Australian Ministry of Defense has signed an AU$5.5m contract ($4m in USD) for four Bluebottles plus further development. This will include patrolling Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone , protecting assets such as ports and oil rigs, and anti-submarine warfare exercises. The EEZ patrol may include spotting and identifying vessels carrying refugees , a controversial issue in Australian politics. The first of the new-generation Bluebottles, named Beth, is scheduled for delivery this month.

'Beth', scheduled for delivery this month, is the first new-generation Bluebottle under a new ... [+] government contract.

Though smaller and less capable than a manned vessel, Bluebottle has some significant advantages.

"Manned vessels are needed for exciting stuff but are very expensive for dull and boring jobs ,” says Dane.

Uncrewed vessels like the Bluebottle is that they are cheap to acquire and operate. Australia has a huge coastline to protect with relatively modest resources. Large numbers of Bluebottles can patrol tirelessly at low cost. Dane says that the only limit to their endurance is biofouling, the growth weeds and invertebrates that build up on the hull, which starts to affect performance after some months. And a single operator can handle up to a hundred Bluebottles.

In addition to their military role, the Bluebottles may also carry scientific instruments, tracking weather conditions, water temperature and salinity, and monitoring marine wildlife. Like DARPA’s Ocean of Things – another long-endurance marine sensor – they may be a treasure trove of scientific data. However, military observers are likely to be more interested in its potential as an anti-submarine platform. With its capacity to carry and lower an advanced sonar system and sufficient power to drive it, a fleet of Bluebottles would cost less than a single destroyer and cover a much larger area for an extended period. That sort of capability could mean a sea change in anti-submarine operations.