The government is moving to buy strike drones that drop bombs on a target and wants to get them locally if it can.

It said these would be human-operated systems that delivered an explosive without returning to their launch point, so were a lower-cost alternative to missiles.

They would not be autonomous.

NZ Army soldiers, one wearing first person view goggles, testing drone technology at Burnham Military Camp in August 2025.

The defence upgrade plan last year suggested $100-300 million could be spent on upping NZDF strike capabilities.

Until now, the force focused on surveillance drones at sea or that fly, though it had tested lethal ones.

Defence Minister Chris Penk said they would soon be asking the defence industry what was on offer, especially locally.

"There is a growing number of businesses supporting defence operations, including with firms developing drone and simulation technologies, and this is an opportunity to further locally led innovation," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Defence was also this week beginning market research into unarmed long-range aerial drones for maritime surveillance.

Budget 2026 made allowance for two types, one for the southwest Pacific and the other ice-proof to fly in the Southern Ocean.

The NZDF currently had personnel in California testing drones and other new military tech in a big US army-led multinational exercise.

In June, the Defence Ministry said the drone budget was "only for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It's not as a weapons system".

It later clarified to RNZ that autonomous weapons systems were off the table, but not human-guided ones.

The NZDF doubled down on the aim to be interoperable with Australia, the US and other partners, which were all racing to get many more drones and in many cases to make them more lethal.