Minister cracks the bubbly on Bluebottle drones as Hunter eyes Canada defence ties

The first of 40 ocean-going Bluebottle drones built in the Hunter has had a ceremonial christening, as the completed hull left the factory on Friday.

The vessel won't be the only one enjoying the top-shelf hospitality, as the Canadian Secretary of State for Defence Procurement, Stephen Fuhr, and his delegation tour the Hunter's growing defence industry facilities over the coming week.

The delegation's visit comes amid growing ties between the so-called 'middle powers' of Australia and Canada outside traditional cooperation funnelled through the United States.

Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy was at Van Munster Boats in Morisset to mark the special occasion, as the Hunter firmed its position as a world leader in seaborne drone technology.

"This is a great step for the Hunter and for our defence industry," Mr Conroy said.

"This project shows that we can lead the world in defence manufacturing and drone technologies."

The minister said the project leveraged the strong manufacturing expertise in the region.

"It is important that regions like the Hunter do this work," he said.

"We've got about 10,000 people who work in the defence industry in the Hunter and that is a national asset that we need to use.

"Those 10,000 people get up each day and make our country safer by what they do and we are lucky to have them in our community."

The Shortland MP said the strong maritime tradition of the Hunter meant defence work for the maritime industry was a "no-brainer".

"The first winner of the Sydney to Hobart was built in Lake Macquarie and Van Munster Boats is one of the world's leading racing yacht manufacturers," he said.

He said diversifying the scope of the industry in the region was the key to success.

"That means finding companies that have great expertise in other areas and getting them into defence," he said.

"For example, 3ME technologies, who do battery technology, they started off doing work principally around mining and agriculture and now they are in defence as well.

"The Hunter is a proud mining and engineering community and that will go on, but getting diversification into other parts of manufacturing is clearly to our advantage."

Mr Conroy said the defence industry not only brought jobs and income to the community but introduced production techniques that could be applied to industries.

"We have provided a grant to Van Munster Boats and put in place equipment that is not only helping them build Bluebottles, but is also helping them win work in the commercial sector as well," he said.

He said the Hunter had a strong future as a cornerstone of Australia's defence industry and a hub of capability and production.

"We've got great infrastructure and we don't have the constraints that places like Sydney do in terms of lack of industrial space and there is a great demand with an increasing defence budget.

"We are going to need more and more of that built in Australia and the Hunter is in a great position to do that."

The Bluebottle is an Australian-designed USV powered by solar, wind and wave energy enabling long-endurance operations while maintaining an acoustically quiet environment for superior underwater surveillance.

The $176 million order for state-of-the-art reconnaissance drones built by Australian technology company, Ocius, was announced in March this year with construction of the vessel's hulls beginning in the Morisset factory soon after.

The new vessels will expand the navy's operational Bluebottle fleet to 55, significantly boosting Australia's long-range maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

The christening of the hull comes as links between the Hunter's growing defence capability and Australia's allies grows.

It is understood the Canadian officials will tour Hunter sites at the weekend, including Williamtown RAAF Base to explore potential opportunities for defence industry cooperation.

"Other countries around the world are responding to the strategic circumstances that we are facing," Mr Conroy said.

In March the Australian government announced a significant defence partnership with Canada, marking Australia's largest-ever defence export deal in relation to radar technology.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, revealed the partnership that would strengthen ties within critical minerals, defence, security and AI industries.

At that time Mr Carney spoke of the need for middle powers, such as Australia and Canada, to collaborate instead of compete in the face of increasing global uncertainty and competition between major powers such as the US and China.

Mr Conroy said the government was in talks with a number of countries about the potential export of Bluebottles and strengthening ties related to other projects.

"The Kongsberg missile factory we're building in Williamtown, the plan is that they will have ability to export some of what they produce," he said.

"Nupress at Cardiff is already building parts of systems that Kongsberg is exporting to Europe.

"There are good opportunities that will only get bigger."

Robert Dane, CEO and co-founder of Ocius Technology, said that, from the very beginning, their vision was to build world-class uncrewed maritime capability in Australia.

"The Bluebottle highlights the incredible innovation and expertise that exists across our local industry to meet current and future challenges," he said.

"We have been working with Van Munster Boats for 10 years and look forward to continuing this important partnership as we scale production of the Bluebottle fleet."

Tributes & Funerals Notices

Daly, Paul Alwyn
1959 - 2026

Published 17 Jun

Jennings, Lenore Gai (Formerly Ellen)
2026

Published 17 Jun

Lawrence, Peter
2026

Published 17 Jun

Macneill, Elva
2021 - 2026

Published 17 Jun
More Tributes & Funerals Notices