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 a Tauranga firm that makes subsea drones, Bay Dynamics, to add to the other types it supplies globally – air, ground and sea-surface drones.
SYOS chief executive Samuel Vye said it was a counter to the growing threat to 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 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.
“We have the two pieces of the puzzle” by adding Bay’s uncrewed underwater vehicles to their drone boats, 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’s drones already work on oil and gas inspections, including one built especially for strong currents off Taranaki, and another for work on dams.
“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 had a contract worth over $60 million to supply its existing drones to the UK government.
Vye said the aim was to remove operators from anything “dull, dirty or dangerous”.
