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UxVs OCEAN AERO and recover,” adds Blystone. “We’ve put a lot of focus on mak- corporated into the Triton.” says Blystone. ing it easy to launch and recover using just one to two people There’s more the company wants to do, however. “Today, in a matter of minutes. It has a single pick point that allows we can use many of our Tritons together on a mission,” says you to lift it and place it in the water easily if you’re using a Blystone. “In the future we’ll continue developing more ad- davit lift system off another vessel or shore side. Because it’s vanced AI/ML algorithms in support of true swarming and a submarine and there’s oil in the boat to naturally balance it, cross-platform coordination.” when you go to pick it up it naturally balances itself. It’s little things that make the process easier. But you literally can also SET FOR GROWTH go push this in from a shore side.” All this is being done under quite a new staff and manage- ment team at Ocean Aero, most of whom have come in over

TRITON OUT IN THE WILD the last 16-20 months to take the company forward as a com-

The result of this work is a platform that’s now in the hands mercial enterprise. A big part of that was a series C fund raise of the Department of Homeland Security and the University of last year, which netted the company $14 million. To underpin

Washington, as well as the US Navy, another US agency, and its growth, the company has also moved from San Diego to a number of other organizations. “There are three big markets the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi, where it will again move we’re focused on, the defense community, the scienti? c com- into a 63,000 sq. ft. facility by the end of this year. It’s also munity, and the offshore energy community, predominantly off- staf? ng up. Decker says they had 17 staff in early summer last shore oil and gas but also offshore wind. We’re active in those year and are looking to have increased that to 60 full time staff three markets,” says Blystone. “We have active deployments or by the end of March. It has also built up an advisory board programs in all of those three markets, with customers either which includes a number of two- to four-star admirals and an owning systems or paying us to operate them with applications impressive roster of technical specialists who’re active in the varying from monitoring marine life to asset inspection,” he says. advocacy of the group, adds Decker.

A large current focus is on sensor and payload integration, As Ocean Aero moves into a new commercial gear, some of its working with other organizations. “What you do with the boat original founders are back doing what they do; working on new is really the most important thing. We’ve been really focus- ideas. Co-founders Vance McClure and Mark Ott, who was CTO ing our engineering efforts on making sure we have fantastic until 2016, have moved on, with Ott now a founding partner at payload integrations, fantastic sensor integrations and partner- SubSeaSail, along with partner Chris Todter, who was also at ships as we move forward. Ultimately whatever payload and Ocean Aero. Another former member of the Ocean Aero crew sensor packages the customer wants should be able to be in- is Ken Childress, who is now at AUV and data ? rm Terradepth.

O Oc ce ea an n A Ae er ro o’ ’s s T Trriittoonn hybrid d veh hi icl le op perating in n sa ai il l b b b bo o o oa a a at t t t m m m mo o o od d d de e e e a a a at t t t s s s se e e ea a. .

Photo courtesy Ocean Aero 38 March/April 2022

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