Jamie Bamford: Customs Deputy Chief Executive of Operations on the new remote control vessels for sea border patrols

Customs says we're getting more bang for our buck with new remote controlled vessels patrolling our sea borders. 

The boats —Tahi and Rua— were launched yesterday and now help protect our maritime security, including stopping drug smuggling. 

They'll operate at sea for up to 100 days using solar and wind power, while providing real-time intelligence. 

A recent Government report shows Customs seized 55 kilograms worth of methamphetamine in 2015, now 90 kilos gets stopped every week. 

Customs Deputy Chief Executive of Operations Jamie Bamford told Mike Hosking it's a technological milestone in their capability. 

He says drug cartels are starting to use the ocean to smuggle, and we have the world's 11th longest coastline to monitor. 

Bamford told Hosking each vessel cost around one million dollars each. 

He says if you put out a frigate it's a lot more expensive and can't be out there for as long because it takes a crew and fuel. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seven Harvard on the surface or at the headline level.
What Trump is looking to do with places like Harvard
is go you can't go round being anti semitic the
way you are. So there's a funding rouse of Richard
Arnold on that. Shortly meantime back here is this the future?
There's your question this morning. Customs and the Defense Force.
They've got these two uncrewed surface vessels that are going

(00:23):
to be used to disrupt transnational organized crime. They're USVs
are there. They were trialed last year. Apparently they're seven
and a half meters long. They use a mix of solar,
wind and tide power to move, so they can be
at sea for a long time. Customs Deputy chief Executive
of Operations, Jamie Bamfort's with us on all of this. Jamie,
Morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
You, morning Mike. How are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank you? When we say Customs and Defense, do you
share it all to your sort of co lab and
all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, we've invested alongside Defense in buying those two concruise
serface vessels, so it's a sort of joint venture.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
What do you pay for them?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
What are they worth? You're about a million and a
half dollars for each one, so not cheap, but considerably cheaper,
and getting a frigate out there to do the same
sort of job.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
And will they do the same sort of job as.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
A frigid, Yes they will. I mean the Pacific Ocean
has gone from being a defense to a bit of
a risk vector for us, with our drug cartels and
our adversaries starting to smuggle through the huge ocean. We
have the world eleventh largest coastline, so we've got a large,
expansive sea to monitor, and so these two vessels give
us the opportunity to see and look across the oceans

(01:28):
and see what's coming our way.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
What do you do about it? Because if I was
a drug smuggler, I would outrun you. I see there's
no people on board. I might blow you up. Do
you have all of those sort of things covered, Yes,
we do.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
We work closely with defense and police and other agencies,
so make sure we've got a good understanding what's happening
and we kind of plan accordingly. So I think you'd
have seen we've been into the Sea of Defense to
pick up three tons of cocaine a year or tour ago.
We also arrest people on shore, So we've got many,
many kind of ways of responding to that issue.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Is this a game changer or just a technological advance?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I think it's both. Actually, it used to be hugely
expensive for us to sort of have this capability. Prices
come down because technology is advanced. We're tech hungry at
Customs and defense, and so I think it really kind
of brings us into the game and gives us some capability.
It is our adversaries there growing too.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Does the tech improve over time, so when you talk
about solar, wind and tide, does it use all of
that at the same time, And is that tech improving exponentially?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yes it is, and yes it can. So it can
be at sea for quite a long time. You know,
if you put out like I said, a frigate needs fueling.
It's got men and women on board. They need feeding,
so it can only be out there for so long.
Last expense these things pretty cheap gives us good maritime
domain awareness as we call it in the trade for
a very cheap price.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Really nice to go. Well, Jamie appreciate it. Jamie Benford,
who's the Customs Deputy Chief Executive of Operation sounds good,
doesn't it? Twenty Minutes Away from Civil For more from
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