A Mount Maunganui business is aiming to use undersea drones to help protect seafloor cables from sabotage as well as other work.
SYOS Aerospace has acquired Tauranga firm Bay Dynamics, a maker of subsea drones, adding it to the other types it supplies globally: air, ground and sea-surface drones.
SYOS chief executive Samuel Vye described the move as a direct response to the growing threat facing underwater data cables and gas pipelines. "What we're doing by integrating underwater vehicles along with our drone boats is actually the ability to do rapid inspection of seafloor infrastructure as well as ongoing surveillance of seafloor infrastructure," Vye told RNZ on Tuesday.
Officials have previously warned the government that submarine cables were "attractive espionage targets". Finland recently charged the crew of an oil tanker suspected of damaging five undersea cables with aggravated sabotage.
Vye said the geopolitical environment made the move particularly important. Adding Bay Dynamics' uncrewed underwater vehicles to SYOS's drone boats gave the company "the two pieces of the puzzle," he said. "Say, out... off of Taranaki, you could command the boat to go out and you would then command the boat to deploy the underwater vehicle... and inspect the infrastructure, and you're being able to do that effectively from the comfort and safety of your office."
Bay Dynamics' drones are already working on oil and gas inspections, with one model built especially for the strong currents off Taranaki and another for dam work.
"We have another design with a defence multi-role capability, which is lined up for Antarctica under ice applications," founding director Matt Mooney said in a statement.
SYOS holds a contract worth over $60 million to supply its existing drones to the UK government. Vye said the broader aim was to remove operators from anything "dull, dirty or dangerous".
