Source: Radio New Zealand
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The Defence Force is going to begin testing air, land and sea drones from a Mount Maunganui company.
Syos Aerospace drones are used in Ukraine and it recently took another step towards helping develop ‘wingman drones’ for the UK’s Apache attack helicopters, including for strike and target acquisition
The government said the trial of the combat-proven tech would strengthen capability while growing local industry.
“Having cutting-edge drone technology developed and supported by local businesses will reduce supply chain risk and strengthen our resilience,” said Defence Minister Judith Collins in a statement on Thursday.
Neither the Beehive or Syos’ media releases said how many drones or what the deal was worth. RNZ has asked for more information.
The trials in coming months would include transporting supplies, and doing maritime patrols and route reconnaissance.
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NZDF said it was looking at integrating the drones with a fire control system designed and built in New Zealand by European firm Hirtenberger.
New Zealand consulting firm Sysdoc would support training.
Defence ran consultations with companies in January around a potential plan for surveillance drones to scour the Pacific.
Its long-range drone project has a ballpark budget of $100-$300 million over four years. Other sums would be spent on AI in behind that.
Budget 2025 funded counter-drone systems – say, that shoot down drones – as one of 15 “priority” projects, but not maritime or other drones.
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Collins said the Syos deal was exactly what the recently released defence industry strategy called for, for delivering on the $12 billion defence capability plan.
The army and navy get to test Syos’ SG400 Uncrewed Ground Vehicle, SM300 Uncrewed Surface Vessel, SA2 ISR drone and SA7 one-way effector drone.
The NZDF has been part of big drone-testing exercises by the US and other Five Eyes partners in recent years, but last year took just a single drone to one such joint exercise in Australia.
Syos said it was delighted.
Syos chief executive and founder Sam Vye. Supplied
“Our platforms and systems have been proven in some of the world’s most demanding environments, and we’re proud to bring that experience to New Zealand’s capability development,” said chief executive and founder Sam Vye.
“Structured experimentation” at NZDF aligned with how they worked, he added.
The NZDF is trying to align itself with its Australian counterpart on emerging military tech. This was an objective of the AUKUS Pillar Two agreement; NZ has not joined that agreement but was still pushing to become more interoperable as combat, reconnaissance and other tech becomes more advanced.
Australia announced a three-year research project into counter-drone technology this week.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
