Tauranga robotics company Syos Aerospace has won a contract to supply the New Zealand Defence Force with drones.

The air, land and sea drones will be delivered over the coming months for the Army and Navy to conduct trials in a range of scenarios, including transporting supplies, performing maritime patrols and completing route reconnaissance.

Defence Minister Judith Collins said the innovative Kiwi drones will be trialled by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to strengthen capability while growing local industry.

“We’re partnering with New Zealand businesses to ensure the Defence Force can protect our people into the future,” she said.

“[The] NZDF will buy and trial advanced uncrewed systems from Syos Aerospace, enabling access to mission-ready, combat-proven technology.”

The agreement also includes technical services, training and operational support to ensure NZDF personnel are equipped to integrate, operate and evaluate emerging technologies effectively.

Last year, the Government announced its Defence Industry Strategy, which detailed how the Defence Force wanted more local firms producing military equipment.

“Having cutting-edge drone technology developed and supported by local businesses will reduce supply chain risk and strengthen our resilience – exactly what the strategy is designed for,” Collins said today.

“In an increasingly contested world, we’re building the future by equipping our Defence Force with innovative Kiwi products to keep our people safe.”

Syos founder and chief executive Sam Vye said the company was delighted and well-positioned to support the NZDF.

“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,” Vye said.

“We deliver advanced uncrewed autonomy solutions across air, land, sea and subsurface domains – engineered for missions where reliability and performance are critical.

“Our expertise in hardware, uncrewed technologies and AI‑enabled [artificial intelligence-enabled] autonomy ensures we can provide scalable, affordable, mission‑ready solutions that deliver real operational advantage.”

Collins said they were backing Kiwi businesses further by bringing together Sysdoc for training support and Hirtenberger Defence Technology for advanced systems support.

“This will inform future capability decisions on a technology that has rapidly become central to modern military operations,” she said.

Last month, the UK’s Ministry of Defence named Syos as one of seven firms to advance to the next stage of Project NYX – a project to develop “wingman drones” for the British Army’s Apache attack helicopters.