News

Official Media Release

Acting Premier and Minister for Industry John Barilaro today unveiled 16 high-tech companies that will put their defence technology on show at the PACIFIC 2019 International Maritime Expo in Sydney this October.

PACIFIC is the only comprehensive defence and marine technology exhibition of its kind in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

“NSW is a high-tech state and home of one of the world’s largest biannual defence and maritime industry events, the PACIFIC International Maritime Expo,” Mr Barilaro said.

“PACIFIC is one of the best opportunities we have as a state to showcase the existing strengths and capabilities of the NSW defence sector and our local industry.

“NSW defence and maritime companies will be exhibiting to win global export sales and we will be directly supporting 16 of them on our stand to open doors and close deals,” he said.

The previous PACIFIC exhibition held in Sydney in 2017 attracted 546 exhibiting companies, over 16,700 attendances, and 79 senior military and industry delegations from 53 countries.

PACIFIC will provide a global showcase for our commercial maritime and naval defence industries to promote their capabilities to decision-makers from around the world.

Today Mr Barilaro witnessed co-exhibitor Ocius Technology demonstrating its smart Bluebottle unmanned surface vessel (USV) on the waters of Sydney Harbour.

Known as ‘Bob’, the USV is capable of performing ocean surveillance roles in applications including defence, offshore energy, and science using only the sun, wind, and waves as its source of energy.

“Ocius Technology is a fantastic example of the smart systems for which NSW is renowned and its Bluebottle prototypes continue to impress in naval trials,” said NSW Defence Advocate Air Marshal (Retd) John Harvey AM.

“The Bluebottle can complement our Navy’s existing capabilities with potentially hundreds deployed at sea conducting maritime surveillance of Australia’s vast coastline.”

Ocius Technology Chairman Mark Bethwaite said the global USV market for defence applications alone is estimated to be worth around $4 billion by 2020.

“Bluebottle USVs have greater power, payload and performance compared to known competitors and are able to navigate freely and indefinitely across the world’s oceans.

“Ocius is already working with two major private sector partners to develop USVs capable of performing specific high value applications in hydrography and defence.”

PACIFIC will see companies exhibiting from Wollongong, Newcastle, Queanbeyan, Nowra and Yamba as well as companies from Sydney.

PACIFIC 2019 will take place at the Sydney International Convention Centre from 8-10 October 2019.