A California company is moving its headquarters to the MS Coast to make ocean drones
A California company that builds underwater drones is relocating its headquarters and manufacturing operations from San Diego to Gulfport.
Ocean Aero, Inc. will build, test and demonstrate “autonomous underwater and surface vehicles” from 67,000 square feet of warehouse space on the Port of Gulfport’s East Pier.
The vehicles, similar to drones but used on and under water, have been used by the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and offshore energy companies, according to a press release from the Mississippi State Port Authority.
“Along with our partners at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Port of Gulfport, we are building a world-class collaboration of leaders,” said Ocean Aero CEO Kevin Decker. “Without this tremendous Mississippi community, we wouldn’t be as successful today.”
The agreement is expected to create 45 new jobs by the end of 2021, the port authority press release said. Kimberly K. Aguilard, media and marketing manager for the port authority, said those jobs will be local hires, not transfers from the company’s San Diego operations.
Southern Miss has created a “pathway” to educate students in the fields necessary for Ocean Aero’s work, she said.
“We have a pipeline that has already begun with graduates from USM that can quickly move into a job,” she said.
Mississippi a hub for ocean drones
In 2020, the then-20-employee company won a contract to deliver unmanned maritime vehicles to the Department of Homeland Security, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“It’s a broad program that is solving many of DHS problems,” then-chief executive Eric Patten told the newspaper. “They’ve got coastal surveillance type problems. They have oceanography and meteorology things they want to know about the ocean. There are a variety of things.”
Southern Miss was also a participant in the deal with DHS, according to the Union-Tribune. In July, Ocean Aero used the university’s marine research center in Gulfport for testing and training on one of six autonomous boats it delivered to DHS as part of the deal.
With Ocean Aero’s relocation, the Port of Gulfport expands as a hub for ocean-going autonomous vehicles.
The Port now houses NOAA’s Uncrewed Maritime Operations, through a lease with USM.
The agency is scaling up its uncrewed vehicle operations. Applications include ocean mapping and hurricane forecasting.
The lease between the Port of Gulfport and Ocean Aero is for an initial 10 years and provides for two five-year extensions. The new space is expected to be operational by early 2022, according to the port authority press release.
One of Ocean Aero’s vehicles, TRITON, is the world’s first and only maritime drone that “operates exclusively on wind and solar energy and performs long-endurance missions on the ocean’s surface with the ability to also perform underwater operations,” according to a press release from the Mississippi Development Authority.
