LeVanta Tech shows off its unusual HALIA drone at sea test

LeVanta Tech said it demonstrated its HALIA unmanned system at ANTX Coastal Trident last month, showing how the platform can link air, surface, subsea and seabed assets over long distances.

Photos of HALIA show an unusual design. The drone sits low in the water with a dark, angular hull riding hull-down, mostly submerged. Two cylindrical engine pods sit side by side on top of the fuselage, feeding what appear to be ducted fans, while swept white wings and twin tail fins jut out near the back, just clear of the waterline. A small sensor mast pokes up from one wing root. Little about the shape resembles a conventional aircraft or boat.

HALIA is a “float-and-fly” drone: it flies to a location, lands directly on the open ocean, and can sit there for weeks in a low-power floating mode before relaunching to reposition or leave the area, according to LeVanta Tech, which profiled the company in September 2025. The company said HALIA does not require a dedicated ship or fixed infrastructure to operate, since it can move between the air and water on its own.

At Coastal Trident, LeVanta Tech worked with STR, a defense technology firm with undersea systems and sensor work based near Boston, to demonstrate a communications architecture connecting air, surface, subsea and seabed systems. STR provided what the companies called a “rapidly repositionable” command-and-control air-water gateway, using what the companies described as high technology readiness level components to deliver over-the-horizon, real-time command-and-control links to subsea and seabed systems.

ANTX Coastal Trident is an annual exercise run by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division at the Port of Hueneme, California, bringing together Navy, other government agencies, academia and industry to test maritime and port security technology in an operational setting.

LeVanta Tech, founded in 2023, started out building real-time maritime monitoring tools for the offshore wind industry before shifting to a defense-first focus. The company’s leadership includes CEO Kelly Echols, an engineer and patent attorney by background; Chief Aviation Officer Jon Smith, a former P-3C Orion instructor pilot and Navy unmanned aircraft test project manager; and CTO Johnny Doo, who has more than 40 years in aircraft and hovercraft development, according to Defense Tech Signals.

The company was one of six finalists selected from 260 applicants for the 2024 Gulf Blue Navigator accelerator. A demonstration that year drew interest from the Air Force, which led to a $1.8 million Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research award. The Air Force Research Laboratory followed with a Phase II SBIR contract worth $1.76 million running through December 2026, covering a project titled “Floating and Loitering Ocean Advanced Technology Sensing,” according to federal contract records cited by Defense Tech Signals. LeVanta Tech has also raised more than $1.1 million in early funding, including an $800,000 credit investment from Leonid Capital Partners in April 2025.

LeVanta Tech is developing HALIA in two configurations: a battery-electric version for tactical missions and a hybrid-electric version built for longer range. Both are designed to scale into larger platforms, the company has said. HALIA uses variable buoyancy combined with a hovercraft-assisted launch and recovery system, intended to let it take off and land in rough seas. Its top speed has been reported at more than 100 knots (185 km/h), with loiter times of weeks in its powered-down floating mode.

The platform carries a modular payload bay that LeVanta Tech says can support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors, electronic warfare packages, kinetic payloads and communications equipment, feeding into wider command-and-control networks. The distinctive hull shape and twin engine pods are part of what LeVanta Tech describes as a design built specifically for surviving repeated transitions between air and water, rather than adapted from an existing aircraft or boat.