ThayerMahan Awarded Contract to Deliver 40 Outpost® Acoustic Intelligence Payloads, TransparenSea® Processing Software to Ocius, Royal Australian Navy

GROTON, Conn., Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ThayerMahan, Inc., the premier provider of end-to-end acoustic intelligence solutions for unmanned systems, today announced a major contract award to deliver 40 Outpost® acoustic intelligence payloads - and associated TransparenSea® processing software - to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as part of the SEA1200 Program of Record through its Australian partner and Bluebottle USV manufacturer, Ocius. The award designates ThayerMahan as the acoustic intelligence provider for Ocius Bluebottle USVs supporting the RAN's recently announced SEA1200 Bluebottle Program of Record, reinforcing ThayerMahan's position as the world leader in persistent maritime domain awareness.

"The Ocius Bluebottle is a formidable asset," said The Honourable Pat Conroy, Minister for Defence Industry Australia. "It's already providing near persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for Australia, having even remained on station as cyclones rolled through. And now, thanks to this new partnership, this capability will provide enhanced protection of Australia's vast maritime domain."

The contract follows exercises in which ThayerMahan's Outpost® acoustic intelligence payload and TransparenSea® software demonstrated wide-area acoustic intelligence operations to the RAN. The exercise demonstrated system operations for more than 85 consecutive days, providing continuous ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance). ThayerMahan's Outpost® acoustic intelligence payload and TransparenSea® software detected, classified, tracked, and held targets of interest, achieving ranges that exceeded expectations. These results, combined with out of the box operational performance, reliability, lower power draw and software user interface supported the selection of ThayerMahan's Outpost® for the Commonwealth of Australia's Program of Record, the world's first large-scale deployment of unmanned acoustic sensing systems.

"Persistent, wide-area, over-the-horizon acoustic intelligence is an exacting mission, but it is also a capability that ThayerMahan has spent the last decade perfecting," added Mike Varney, President Products & Engineering at ThayerMahan. "The performance Outpost and TransparenSea demonstrated to the Royal Australian Navy, while integrated in an Ocius USV, supported this first-of-its-kind order. Our systems, software, and unmatched expertise in analysis deliver performance that consistently exceeds expectations, and sets a new global benchmark for unmanned acoustic ISR."

The Program of Record represents the largest volume acquisition of unmanned subsea and surface acoustic sensing packages by any nation to date, and establishes a new standard for undersea domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region. It positions the Royal Australian Navy as a global leader in the operational employment of unmanned acoustic sensing systems to strengthen maritime security and national defense.

"In an increasingly contested global landscape, Australia requires the most advanced technologies to address evolving maritime threats," said Robert Dane, Chief Executive Officer of Ocius Technology. "The integration of the Ocius Bluebottle platform with ThayerMahan's advanced sensing capabilities delivers a proven, near-persistent undersea surveillance solution."

"ThayerMahan is proud to be a longstanding technology partner with Ocius, and proud of the advances in next-generation maritime awareness that we have achieved together with our proven autonomous technologies," added Mike Connor, Chairman and CEO ThayerMahan. "This contract represents the latest significant advancement in undersea warfare surveillance capability. Our advanced Outpost acoustic intelligence payloads and TransparenSea software will provide the Royal Australian Navy with sensing, processing, and data dissemination technologies that integrate with the Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel to deliver a highly effective autonomous undersea sensing platform. ThayerMahan's selection to deliver 40 systems for the SEA1200 program demonstrates how our mature, autonomous acoustic surveillance can provide our allies and partners with persistent scalable maritime domain awareness and actionable intelligence at significantly lower cost while extending coverage across critical operating areas."

Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) stated, "This sale of U.S. technology, produced in Connecticut by a veteran‑friendly organization, is exactly the type of outcome AUKUS Pillar II was meant to deliver. ThayerMahan's Outpost acoustic intelligence capability and TransparenSea analytics, deployed on an Australian Bluebottle unmanned vessel, demonstrate a fast-fieldable new capability that brings transformative undersea awareness to allied fleets. Australia's leadership and commitment in fielding 40 Outpost unmanned acoustic intelligence systems should serve as a clear signal to the United States: these capabilities are operational now, and they are necessary. We must move with urgency to ensure U.S. naval and maritime forces can benefit from these proven systems that enhance security, readiness, and undersea dominance."

ThayerMahan's success in delivering field-proven, export-cleared systems strengthens the U.S. industrial base and addresses the need for global maritime domain awareness. This award further underscores the company's capacity to rapidly produce and deploy superior acoustic intelligence solutions at scale.

About Outpost®
ThayerMahan's acoustic intelligence payload consists of deep-towed passive acoustic arrays, advanced onboard processing, and near-real-time delivery of actionable maritime intelligence with its TransparenSea® software. The platform-agnostic acoustic intelligence capability will be deployed on Ocius Bluebottle USVs for the Royal Australian Navy's Program of Record for combating undersea threats. Bluebottles are long-dwell 24-foot unmanned vessels powered by solar, wind, and wave energy. ThayerMahan's partnership with Ocius, established in 2023 - and their joint delivery of unmanned maritime domain awareness - directly support the objectives of AUKUS Pillar II, part of the trilateral security partnership between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. 

About ThayerMahan®  
ThayerMahan, Inc. is a maritime technology company specializing in unmanned acoustic intelligence, persistent undersea surveillance, and non-kinetic counter-UUV capabilities. The company provides its government and commercial customers with end-to-end autonomous system deployment, field operations, continuous data collection, and advanced analytics. Using state-of-the-art acoustic and electronic sensors integrated across a range of surface and subsurface platforms, ThayerMahan delivers tailored capabilities that support mission-critical defense, security, and infrastructure protection requirements. Headquartered in Groton, CT, ThayerMahan also maintains offices in Lowell, MA, and Arlington, VA. For more information, please visit www.thayermahan.com or contact the company at [email protected].

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SOURCE ThayerMahan, Inc.