Syos Aerospace USVs escort Royal Navy ship

New Zealand company Syos Aerospace, which has built more than 150 of its SM300 Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) for both the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and undisclosed European customers, demonstrated ultra long-range control of an SM300 during Indo Pacific.

The demonstration came only a few days after the UK Royal Navy (RN) disclosed that a flotilla of five Syos Rattler 7.2m USVs was used successfully to escort two RN warships in Scotland over a 72-hour period. The Rattlers were controlled in real time from 800km away in Portsmouth Harbour from aboard the RN experimental vessel XV Patrick Blackett.

The demonstration was conducted by the RN’s Disruptive Capabilities and Technology Office (DCTO) and Fleet Experimentation Squadron (FXS). The Rattlers can be pre-programmed with mission profiles and navigation routes and can work together as a wolf pack on operations.

At Indo Pacific the company went one better, demonstrating remote control over a 10,500-mile link, from Sydney to the Solent, of an SM300 craft.