Mt Maunganui-based robotics company SYOS Aerospace has acquired Tauranga-based uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) developer Bay Dynamics to complement SYOS’s autonomous uncrewed air, land and sea vehicles.

SYOS CEO Sam Vye said underwater is the next logical frontier for autonomous uncrewed vehicles and SYOS plans to make Bay Dynamics’ UUVs interoperate with SYOS’s uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) also known as drone boats to provide customers with a fully integrated solution for underwater inspection, surveillance and interaction.

“The acquisition of Bay Dynamics provides a significant boost to SYOS’ capabilities as a multi-domain uncrewed vehicles company to now provide our customers with subsurface solutions with the same SYOS vision: Autonomous uncrewed vehicles to reduce risk, reduce cost and optimise operations which are accessible for all.

“This is a strategic acquisition to strengthen SYOS’s positioning as a world class drone and robotics technology company supplying both the defence and civilian sectors.

“SYOS has acquired Bay Dynamics for two reasons. First to access its current UUV designs that can be integrated into SYOS’ USVs for a multi-domain maritime offering, surface and subsurface inspection and interaction. For example, for remote and rapid seafloor infrastructure inspection – particularly important in the current geopolitical environment where we are seeing sabotage of critical infrastructure.  The second reason is to gain the engineering capability to develop new vehicles in the emerging hot subsurface domain.

“We will integrate the subsurface systems into the broader SYOS family of vehicles, all underpinned by the SYOS autonomy command and control backbone called AAIMS. The huge value for SYOS is that Bay Dynamics provides SYOS with the capability of subsurface or underwater robotics, which provides significant value add to SYOS’s global capabilities as a multi-domain robotics company.”

Bay Dynamics founding Director and Head of Subsea Vehicle Design Matt Mooney said Bay Dynamics team members have years of experience working around the world in the challenging subsea oil and gas industry. The company designs, builds and supplies uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) for a wide range of services from inspections to complex underwater construction or repair tasks.

“We have a hybrid UUV capable of both tethered control from a USV, or unplugged autonomous operation, initially funded out of the United States, and another UUV for long range – up to 10 kilometre – tunnel work that we won Water New Zealand’s Project of the Year Award for in 2023.

“We recently developed an oil and gas support unit designed especially for the high flow waters of the offshore Taranaki region. Another design has been used for the inshore energy civil sector for dams and long-range penstocks.

“We have another design with a defence multi-role capability, which is lined up for Antarctica under ice applications. These were designed and built by Bay Dynamics to bring experience and ruggedness to markets that were demanding it but not getting it elsewhere.

“The drive to constantly develop and improve uncrewed systems at both companies means it's a great partnership moving forward on the world stage. The subsea systems at Bay Dynamics will perfectly complement SYOS’s existing and future platforms as SYOS expands into the underwater domain."

Founded four years ago in Mt Maunganui, SYOS opened a European engineering and production facility at Fareham in the UK in 2024. The Fareham site employs 50 highly skilled engineers and can produce 40 state-of-the-art USVs a month. Bay Dynamics operations will relocate to SYOS’s Mt Maunganui site which currently employs about 70 people and UUV production will be expanded into the UK for the European market.

Vye said the potential applications for SYOS air, land, sea and now underwater vehicles are endless ranging from disaster response to offshore inspections to delivering supplies to ships.

“We want to remove a pilot or operator from any operation that is dull, dirty, or dangerous – to reduce risk and reduce cost - whether that’s in national security or in civil applications. The cost of uncrewed vehicles can be much lower than traditional crewed vehicles, both in terms of purchase and operating costs. The use of robotics unlocks much greater capabilities with use of AI, computer vision and swarming capabilities. This is a capability step change.”

In April this year SYOS won a £30 million contract to supply the UK government with a fleet of cutting-edge drones. In May SYOS was named PwC Hi-Tech Company of the Year at the 2025 NZ Hi-Tech Awards.