Tech Quarterly: SYOS’ attritable drones and mission software

Founded in 2021, SYOS Aerospace has rapidly emerged as a disruptive force in the uncrewed systems market, securing major international contracts despite only being established recently.

At the core of the company’s offering is its open-architecture Autonomous Augmented Intelligence Mission System (AAIMS), which underpins a growing family of attritable multi-domain uncrewed vehicles.

Dual-headquartered in the UK and New Zealand and with an expanding international footprint that includes operational and support presence in Ukraine, SYOS has grown to 170 personnel and has uniquely positioned itself to deliver autonomous solutions at a market-leading cost-to-capability ratio.

Among its successes, the company has been awarded multiple UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) contracts for Ukraine, and is the only SME shortlisted to progress to the next phase of the British Army’s Project ‘NYX’ ‘loyal wingman’ drone programme.

By prioritising rapid iteration, supply chain resilience, and accessible mass, SYOS is looking to address one of the most pressing challenges in modern defence: replacing prohibitively expensive exquisite platforms with affordable, attritable technology.

Charting the origins

“One of our first big projects was in the Galápagos Islands, [where] we did 148 flights in a day and a half – with just me and another guy,” Vye told DSEI-Gateway. “And we did it for such a small budget: think what BAE Systems would charge for a one-day workshop.”

Recognising a significant capability gap between small electric multi-rotors and expensive crewed helicopters, Vye launched SYOS to rapidly develop heavy-lift UAS at the lowest possible price point.

“We are very aggressive with how we develop things: if something is too expensive, we’ll develop it ourselves,” Vye said, adding that all the company’s product development is focused on providing customers with a minimum viable and deployable capability.

Multi-domain autonomy

Central to its success is AAIMS – an open architecture, platform-agnostic software backbone, developed in-house, that provides a single autonomy layer across domains. By modularising the software, SYOS can rapidly convert any existing platform into an autonomous uncrewed vehicle.

The company’s flagship platform utilising this software is its SA200 uncrewed helicopter – currently at technology readiness level eight – which can operate for up to two hours and has a 200kg lift capacity. It is designed for land and maritime operations, with capabilities including autonomous ship-based take-off and landing and alternative navigation for GNSS-denied environments.  

“This is going through further development trials right now, and we’re working on this with our teams in Ukraine,” he said.

In the maritime domain SYOS delivered more than 140 uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) in 2025 alone – making it one of the largest manufacturers of USVs on the market. Many of these, including its SM300 USV, are understood to have entered operational use in Ukraine.

Contract milestones

SYOS’s breakthrough in the defence sector came in 2022 when it secured a contract for the UK Royal Navy’s Heavy-Lift Challenge 2 competition, aimed at accelerating development of UAS for heavy-payload maritime logistics.

Building on this success, the SME won five UK MoD tenders in 2023. These included a contract for Heavy-Lift Challenge 3, and a rapid system integration project which the company pitched for at a London ‘Dragon’s Den’ alongside major primes.

“For the British Army to have shortlisted to this stage a company that is so young – alongside large primes and companies that have been around for decades is huge for us,” Vye said.

In February, SYOS secured a contract with the New Zealand Defence Force to deliver a suite of multi-domain uncrewed systems. Beyond hardware delivery, the agreement is framed as a long-term partnership for structured experimentation, evaluation and development of uncrewed systems.  

Growing and scaling

Looking ahead, SYOS is targeting expansion across NATO- Europe and Indo-Pacific partners.

“We’re also paying close attention to the Middle East and what we can do to offer support there,” Vye said.

To meet customer demands, the company is growing its production capacities in the UK, with plans to open new sites, and is exploring options to establish similar manufacturing capabilities in other countries to ensure proximity to end users.

Its growth strategy includes mergers and acquisitions, Vye said. In October 2025 SYOS acquired undersea robotics specialist Bay Dynamics, integrating the company’s uncrewed sea vehicles into the AAIMS ecosystem to address growing subsea intelligence and deterrence requirements.