Press Conference, Canberra

SUBJECTS: Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessels; conflict in the Middle East; Australia providing defensive military assistance; Board of Peace

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY PAT CONROY: Anyway, it's a pleasure to be here at Defence headquarters with the Chief of Navy, Admiral Mark Hammond and Robert Dane, CEO of Ocius, to make another exciting investment announcement for the Australian Defence Force. If you look around the world, obviously, we're seeing the rise of autonomy, we're seeing the rise of drones and autonomous vessels. And the Australian Defence Force is amongst the world leaders in making investments in this area, particularly at the sophisticated end of the spectrum. As part of the largest ever investment, largest ever peacetime investment in the Australian Defence Force, I'm here to announce a  $126 million contract with Ocius to build and supply 40 Ocius Bluebottles to the Royal Australian Navy. This will bring the total fleet of Bluebottles to 55. And when you combine it with our acquisition of the Ghost Shark means that we're one of the largest, we'll have one of the largest fleets of uncrewed maritime vessels in the world. The Ocius Bluebottle is a formidable asset. It's designed to provide near persistent, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for Australia. We have a number already deployed in the northwest of Australia as part of Operation Resolute. And Robert and the Chief of Navy can talk to their capabilities in a second. But their ability to use solar and wave power to give them that near persistent presence, their low profile is obviously extremely attractive to in that(inaudible) they're very hard to spot, and they're deployed for extreme lengths of time. I think the figure, and Robert may correct me, but I think they're on average being deployed for 75 days continuously, and some of them have achieved over six months deployment on station providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. We're also exploring the potential for them to deploy drones and have armed packages to provide kinetic solutions. And this is all Aussie innovation. This is a product that's built in Sydney. The boat, I'm proud to say, is built in Lake Macquarie, the heart of boat building in Australia. So, this is a really exciting announcement. It will add 50 jobs to Ocius, bringing their workforce up to 200, and will add jobs throughout Australia. So, this is Aussie innovation in action. This is a defence future made in Australia. This is another investment by the Albanese Labor Government in equipping the Australian Defence Force. And the beauty of this asset is that it can be launched from a container, it can be launched from a boat ramp, it can be deployed from a ship. Any boat ramp in the north of Australia could be a potential launching pad for these Bluebottles. So, this is another example of us investing in the capabilities we need, and these can be stationed around our exclusive economic zone, providing near-persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, making Australia safer. I'll invite the Chief of Navy to make some remarks.

VICE ADMIRAL MARK HAMMOND: This is another significant waypoint in our journey from enforcing just crew platforms to the hybrid force of crewed and uncrewed platforms. As a nation, we're really fortunate to be the custodians of the third-largest exclusive economic zone in the world. But that's a significant surveillance challenge for our navy. It works out at about 538 square kilometres for every member of the Royal Australian Navy. So, the addition of 40 more ISR platforms that can work in concert with our patrol boat force, with our maritime patrol aircraft, those exquisite crew on platforms, this gives a significant advantage when it comes to surveilling those extremely large areas. It's also very durable. These things have remained on station as the cyclones have rolled through, and they've remained operational. So, this does represent that. The culmination point of a significant amount of testing and trials. We're not done testing. There's more potential in this platform, which we'll explore in the future. But today is a significant waypoint as we transition from a force of just exquisitely crewed capabilities to this hybrid force of teaming large numbers of uncrewed platforms with our crewed capabilities.

ROBERT DANE: Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Chief of Navy. This is one of the largest acquisition contracts for this sort of uncrewed surface vessel in the world to date. And it marks a significant transition from navies testing and evaluating this sort of equipment through to actually investing in the capability and procurement. For us, the Bluebottle is an exquisite, renewable energy-powered drone. It uses solar, wind and wave energy. It has no crew, it has no fuel, and it has no supply. So, it can out at sea for months at a time. And it's very quiet, so it's ideal for acoustic surveillance. The Navy would call this a force multiplier. These Bluebottles, acting in concert with other crewed and uncrewed assets, can give information to captains and admirals that they wouldn't otherwise have. And an example might be that a number of these Bluebottles are positioned to the north of Australia in our economic zone and they detect something entering that's unidentified or illegal, and then they can then cue a manned asset to intervene. The product, as the Minister was saying, is 100 per cent Australian. Ocius is 100 per cent Australian company. Twenty-eight years ago, we won a solar boat race out there on Lake Burley Griffin. And since then, we've built a company which is currently 140 people in Alexandria, and we're selling these to New Zealand and the USA. We have a very robust supply chain of companies from the Hunter to Western Sydney down to Ulladulla, including Adelaide and Darwin and Perth. And on behalf of Team Ocius, which is all our staff and our subcontractors, we want to thank the Minister Conroy and the Australian Government for investing and backing Aussie industry. And we also want to thank the people in navy that we've been working with for 10 years. This has been a 10-year collaboration with the Australian Navy, with the people in uniform to take a good idea and bring it up to being a good defence capability. So, we want to thank you, and we look forward to working with you and delivering on this contract. Thank you.

MINISTER CONROY: Thanks, Robert. And just to conclude, just as when you see at one of our beaches a blue bottle jellyfish, that's a signal to get out of the ocean. I want potential adversaries to realise when they see one of these, it's a signal to get out of our ocean. I think that's a really important message about the way we're equipping the Australian Defence Force to help defend Australia and deter potential adversaries.

I'll invite questions about today's announcement first, and then I'm happy to answer questions about news of the day separately afterwards.

JOURNALIST: Do they potentially have a role in anti-submarine warfare, and if so, what might that look like?

MINISTER CONROY: So, they have the ability to deploy thin line towed array sonars. So, obviously, the ability they provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance not just on the surface and above the surface in the air, but below the surface as well.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned how fast can these go, and can you give a sense of what type of payload it could carry?

VICE ADMIRAL MARK HAMMOND: Patrol speed varies from the mission up to about 6 knots. And payloads, we've got a number of different options under the door there. You won't be surprised. I don't want to disclose what they are now, we have done concept demonstrators though continue with uncrewed air vehicles, which again extends the horizon from an ISR perspective, and of course, there's lots of other things that we can do.

ROBERT DANE: I was just going to say to think of these as a platform that you can place anywhere strategically and control from anywhere from an operations centre, and they can stay on station for months at a time, and the payloads can be whatever above the water or below the water that the customer wants.

JOURNALIST: So, Minister, we're buying Bluebottle, we're buying Ghost Shark, what else?

MINISTER CONROY: You won't be surprised to know that I'm here announcing Bluebottle. When I make other announcements, you'll get notice of that. Obviously, we're going through the formulation of the 2026 National Defence Strategy and the Integrated Investment Program that will be associated with it. But I'm proud that there's a range of Australian companies that are leading the world in autonomous systems. And we'll continue to invest in this area because, as the Chief of Navy said, we want to see a hybrid navy that is a mix of exquisite, crewed platforms and providing real mass through uncrewed platforms, whether it's Ghost Sharks, Bluebottles or other options. Any other questions on today's announcement?

JOURNALIST: Will any Australian Defence Force personnel assets sent to the Middle East be used in the US operation on the Strait of Hormuz?

MINISTER CONROY: We've been very clear that the announcement of the E-7A Wedgetail is to support and respond to a request from the UAE, and it's purely defensive. It will be there to detect incoming threats, whether that's drones or missiles, and relay that information to the UAE command and control system. They will then cue defectors to deal with those things. So, that's the extent of the mission. We've been very clear that it will not be used for offensive operations.

JOURNALIST: Richard Marles and Penny Wong both yesterday confirmed that there were requests from the US for assistance in the region. Are those pending, or has the government rejected those requests?

MINISTER CONROY: Oh, I'm not going to go into the details of those requests. We don't engage in megaphone diplomacy. We've responded to the UAE request, and that was what we announced.

JOURNALIST: It's not the detail. Has the request been accepted or rejected?

MINISTER CONROY: I'm not going to go into those details.

JOURNALIST: Minister, perhaps a question for Chief of Navy. Can you explain how submariners on a US submarine were able to keep away from offensive operations against [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: Yeah, well, I'm not going to get into the details of that. What I can do is confirm what the Prime Minister said on Friday, that they played absolutely no role in the offensive operation. So, I'm not going to get into details of how that was managed. We're providing more information than we typically do on third-party deployments. And that, quite frankly, was because of, there's a level of disinformation out there that we wanted to nullify. But the citizens of Australia should be assured that they played no role in the offensive operations, and their deployment continues to be consistent with Australian law.

JOURNALIST: So, were they taken away from any of the actual firing operation?

MINISTER CONROY: I'm not going to get into the details of what occurred, but they played no role, absolutely, in the offensive operations.

JOURNALIST: Are the AMRAAM missiles we're giving to the UAE, are they coming from our magazine stocks onshore, or are they diverted US supplies? And secondly, are you concerned about our missile orders being sent to the Middle East just because they have greater need?

MINISTER CONROY: Yeah, I saw those reports yesterday, Ben, and I'm sad to say that they were inaccurate. First off, I've received --

JOURNALIST: Which ones?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm going to take the opportunity to correct the record. Firstly, I've received no advice that any of our missile orders are in danger of being diverted – so, correction number one. Correction number two: the AMRAAMs that we're providing to the UAE are from our existing stock. I'm proud that we're making a $21 billion investment in the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance enterprise. We've already opened our first factory to build missiles in this country. The first missiles have rolled off the production line and are being certified shortly by the United States and then will be test fired. Our second factory is being built right now and will be in operation next year, and we'll have a third factory after that. We're building, we will build four different types of missiles in this country, as well as developing a rocket motor manufacturing sector.

So, we're moved from where the last government was, which was bugger all funds, to be honest, and two media releases as the only product, to $21 billion, three factories, building at least four lines of missiles, as well as a rocket motor prime and building artillery ammunition in this country. And we're doing that because our motto is self-reliance within the alliance. And we recognise that we need to build more in this country to increase our resilience as well as to deliver a Defence future made in Australia.

JOURNALIST: Speaking of the alliance, will our future strategic position when it comes to US-led wars be to go under the covers, like we did in [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: Go under?

JOURNALIST: Well, to go into --

MINISTER CONROY: I just can’t quite hear the last bit --

JOURNALIST: Under the covers.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I reject the characterisation of what occurred. We have a range of third-party deployments, as has been going on for decades. They will continue to be there, but we'll always manage Australia's role consistent with both laws, Australian laws, but also our national interest and our state policy position. And our state policy position is that we will take no role in offensive operations against Iran. We're making a contribution to UAE in a defensive state, and our deployments are consistent with that.

JOURNALIST: Minister, will the rotation of Australian submariners continue through US submarines regardless of any escalation in the Iran conflict? Is there anything that could force you to pull them back?

MINISTER CONROY: We're really focused on those rotations because they build capacity and capability within the Royal Australian Navy as part of AUKUS. We need to, and we want to keep ramping up the training of submariners so that we're ready to run our own Virginia-class submarines from the early 2030s, and we'll continue to do that. We're confident we can manage those third-party deployments consistent with our laws and our stated position on things like Iran.

JOURNALIST: Can you confirm it was the USS Charlotte as US media [indistinct]?

MINISTER CONROY: That's a question for the US Department of War.

JOURNALIST: With the increased training with the US, are you, is the government putting processes into place to manage that risk when Australians may be involved in a war or conflict that may not be established as legal yet?

MINISTER CONROY: We have those processes in place already, and that's how we manage the interaction of these particular submariners. So, this is nothing new, and we'll continue to manage it in a way that, of course, with our national interest.

JOURNALIST: Given that the US is our primary defence ally, why did it take repeated questioning for the Foreign Minister and a day or two for the Defence Minister to even admit the US had made a request to us? I mean, it's all been covered under a request from the UAE, but it took a lot of work to get our government ministers to say the US had made a request.

MINISTER CONROY: Well, we've been very clear that we don't engage in megaphone diplomacy. We consider requests and respond to them in an orderly way. We have a cabinet government, and we make decisions based on Cabinet processes. I'll leave the commentary to you about how long we take to respond to your questions, but we'll always act in the national interest.

JOURNALIST: Do we have any personnel conceivably in harm's way still in the Middle East?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm not going to comment on individual deployments, but we have a number of ADF personnel in the Middle East, and they're all safe and accounted for.

JOURNALIST: Back on the AMRAAMs, why is the UAE getting the missiles from Australia but not from the US?

MINISTER CONROY: Well, I'm not sure of the premise of your question, whether that's true or not, Kym. What I can say is they've made a request to us, and we're happy to support that because it contributes to their safety. They're an innocent bystander like the other gulf states that played no role in the strikes in Iran, but Iran has chosen to expand the conflict to strike on them. We're providing the missiles and the E-7 Wedgetail in a defensive way, not only to protect the UAE, but to protect the over 100,000 Australian citizens that are right now in the Middle East.

JOURNALIST: Does this AMRAAM donation, what should we read into this about our own missile stocks? Does this mean that you're comfortable about the level of stocks, and we've got enough that we can give away?

MINISTER CONROY: You should read into it that we were comfortable about granting this request and that this was in the interest of not just the UAE, but was in the interest of Australia to help protect Australian citizens.

JOURNALIST: It doesn't threaten our own security, though?

MINISTER CONROY: No, it does not.

SPEAKER A: We've got time for one more question.

JOURNALIST: Are we still sitting on Donald Trump's invitation to join the Board of Peace, or have we responded?

MINISTER CONROY: We're still considering that request. Thank you very much, everyone. Enjoy the sunshine.

ENDS