Australian veteran-owned boat manufacturer The Whiskey Project will be unveiling their much anticipated next-generation tactical watercraft at Pacific 2019 next week.
With a focus firmly on the operator, The Whiskey Project’s tactical watercraft is the product of collaboration between experienced military operators and maritime engineers, architects and innovators.
“In military terms, the Clearance Divers working in Special Operations Command are known as ‘Wateries’ and form part of the Water Platoon,” founder Darren Schuback, a veteran RAN Clearance Diver, said. “So our callsign in accordance with the NATO phonetic alphabet was always Whiskey, hence the name The Whiskey Project.”
Details of the new boat are being kept strictly under wraps but the company is expected to reveal “cutting edge design technologies, advanced safety features and a modular design configuration to offer the safest, most versatile and fit for purpose solution seen in decades.”
Information recently obtained by ADM under the Freedom of Information Act revealed there have been 13 capsizing incidents and 19 near-misses involving RAN tactical watercraft in the last 16 years - bringing into question whether the existing fleet remains fit for purpose.
To address this issue, Schuback told ADM that the Whiskey Project was established to elevate tactical watercraft to better meet the requirements of contemporary maritime missions.
“Tactical maritime operators are highly trained personnel who work in extreme environments. Our mission is to ensure that the watercraft they rely on is optimally suited to the task at hand whilst minimising the risks to personnel and equipment,” Darren said.
“We are building the boats we wish we had in our days in the service,” co-founder Ryan Carmichael, a veteran RAN Clearance Diver who established the first maritime autonomous systems unit within the ADF, added. “A safer, higher performance vessel with integrated cutting-edge technologies that provide a real advantage in tactical situations.”