Bluerydge’s AI Model SierraBlue Reaches Critical Milestone in National Defence Push

The team at Bluerydge is proud to share the news that our sovereign AI model, SierraBlue, has reached a huge development milestone. 

After seven months of dedicated work alongside researchers at UNSW Canberra, and with the support of the Defence Trailblazer program, SierraBlue has been successfully demonstrated in secure and disconnected environments. 

This achievement proves that Australia can build and deploy AI technology that is not only effective but also trusted in the most sensitive contexts, including Defence, government, finance and healthcare. 

A Leap Forward for Sovereign Capability 

SierraBlue was co-founded and led by our directors, Adam Haskard and Tom Kazan, in partnership with UNSW Canberra’s Dr Timothy Lynar. Together, the team set out to solve a growing challenge: how do we give Defence and other critical sectors access to the power of AI without relying on cloud-based systems that are not always suitable or secure. 

Through the Accelerating Sovereign Industrial Capabilities (ASIC) program, we were able to move quickly from research into a working capability. 

This milestone demonstrates how initiatives like SierraBlue can move beyond the academic domain and into embodied AI systems that directly enhance Defence readiness. 

Dr Lynar echoed this, highlighting how the collaboration has delivered a minimum viable product in record time and created a strong pathway between academic innovation and Defence application. 

Built for Secure Environments 

SierraBlue is not just another language model. It has been trained on specialist data sources including intelligence reports, logs and raw databases, and designed to operate where connectivity is limited or non-existent. 

The demonstrations showed SierraBlue in action across a variety of scenarios, from mobile tactical deployments through to secure data centre infrastructure. For our directors and the entire Bluerydge team, these results validated what we have been working towards: sovereign AI that is both operationally effective and secure. 

Looking to the Future 

With testing and validation complete, SierraBlue is now moving into its next phase. The focus is on embedding into cyber-physical systems such as autonomous vehicles, unmanned platforms, secure robotics and human–machine teaming applications. 

As Tom explained, the potential for integration across Defence, Intelligence and other critical sectors is immense. These domains are central to Australia’s future capability and resilience, and SierraBlue is well-positioned to help shape that future. 

By keeping critical AI expertise and infrastructure within Australia, we are ensuring that Defence and Government can rely on solutions that are trusted, resilient and mission-ready. 

SierraBlue shows what is possible when industry and academia come together, and a sign of the sovereign capabilities Australia can achieve when we invest in our own future. 

The SierraBlue team is available for interview. Please contact Bluerydge @ [email protected].