A drone company in Tauranga is building drones for the war in Ukraine. Now New Zealand’s own military wants them too.
The company
SYOS Aerospace, led by founder Sam Vye, builds uncrewed systems for the air, land and sea: helicopter drones, surveillance aircraft, a six wheel ground vehicle and a surface vessel.
The UK
In 2025 the UK awarded SYOS a £30M contract for drones supporting Ukraine, with assembly at its UK facility in Hampshire. In January 2026 SYOS was one of 7 companies picked to design drones for the British Army’s Project NYX, which pairs uncrewed aircraft with Apache helicopters.
At home
In February 2026 the NZ Government said the Defence Force would buy and trial SYOS systems, including a ground vehicle, a surface vessel, a surveillance drone and the SA7 one way effector drone. The Army and Navy will test them on jobs like moving supplies, maritime patrols and route reconnaissance.
The bigger shift
New Zealand’s Defence Capability Plan commits NZ$12B over four years. In July the government said it is looking at human operated, one way strike drones worth up to NZ$300M. Defence Minister Chris Penk said they are especially interested in supporting local innovation, skills and industrial capability.
My read
New Zealand has a habit of building great companies and watching them move offshore. Governments want to buy defence gear from their own country, so defence could be a real reason for the next big Kiwi company to stay home.