TRL 6 — Concept Prototype in Testing — Diamondhead, MS

World's First
Float-and-Fly Maritime Drone

HALIA combines extended sea persistence, rapid airborne repositioning, and runway-free launch from the water — giving distributed maritime teams a new way to find, track, and respond to undersea threats.

▶  See HALIA in Action ASW Mission Profile → Mine Countermeasures →
30+ Days
Modeled sea persistence target
100+ mph
Modeled flight speed target
Small-Boat
Deployable
Designed for two-person expeditionary launch
ASW First
Built for mobile, sea-level sensing
Live Demonstration

See HALIA
in Action

HALIA
Threat Environment

Naval Warfare
Is Changing

The United States and its allies face a generational shift in maritime threats New capabilities, new doctrine, and new technology are not optional — they are existential necessities for maintaining maritime superiority.

Indo-Pacific Competition

China's expanding fleet demands persistent, low-cost maritime surveillance across vast contested waters and critical strategic chokepoints.

Surveillance Gaps

Critical chokepoints lack persistent coverage — leaving allied fleets operationally blind in the zones where submarine threats are highest.

Unsustainable Costs

The P-8A Poseidon costs $200M+ per aircraft. High-tempo persistent ASW patrol is financially untenable at the scale the threat demands.

Drone Proliferation

Adversaries deploy attritable drone swarms and A2/AD systems. The war in Ukraine has shown that unmanned systems win. The Navy must keep pace.

Capability Analysis

The Gap HALIA
Was Designed to Fill

Maritime forces need persistent sensing without committing crewed aircraft, large ships, or short-lived disposable sensor fields to every search area. Traditional airborne ASW is powerful but expensive and payload-limited. Persistent USVs can remain at sea, but they cannot rapidly reposition by air. Static sonobuoy fields can detect and localize, but they expire in place.

HALIA was designed for the gap between those systems: persistent enough to wait at sea, fast enough to reposition by air, and deployable enough to operate from small boats and distributed maritime teams.

UAV — Aerial Drone
Persistence
Hours
Top Speed
Fast
Mission Flexibility
Medium
Detectability
High
✦ HALIA FILLS THE GAP
HALIA — Both Domains
Persistence
30+ Days
Top Speed
100+ mph
Mission Flexibility
High
Detectability
Low
USV — Surface Vessel
Persistence
Months
Top Speed
Slow
Mission Flexibility
Low
Detectability
Moderate
Expeditionary Deployment

Built for Expeditionary
Deployment

HALIA is designed to move from prototype to fleet-relevant use without specialized launch infrastructure.

HALIA is designed for launch and recovery from small boats, expeditionary detachments, and distributed surface teams. It does not require a runway, shipboard catapult, or large recovery vessel. The system is being designed around simple field procedures so a two-person team can prepare, launch, and recover HALIA with minimal support equipment.

Small-Boat Launch

Designed for deployment from small surface craft rather than fixed infrastructure.

HALIA deployment from small boat

Two-Person Handling

Built around simple setup, launch, and recovery procedures for small teams.

Two-person HALIA handling on shore

Fleet-Relevant Transition

Designed to support rapid testing, iteration, and operational deployment in real maritime environments.

HALIA field command station
The Solution

Introducing HALIA

The world's first Float-Fly-Float unmanned drone. A persistent sea-air combat system built to operate with low detectability for weeks and respond in seconds in the world's most contested maritime environments.

01
Phase One

Float

HALIA floats low on the water in motors-off loiter, conserving battery power while maintaining persistent presence in the operating area. Its low profile, composite body, and lack of hot exhaust make detection extremely challenging in cluttered maritime environments.

HALIA stealth float mode
02
Phase Two

Skate

When it is time to reposition, HALIA accelerates across the surface using its HoverFoil™ transition architecture. Testing is progressing toward launch and recovery in increasingly challenging sea-state conditions.

HALIA skating on water
03
Phase Three

Fly

HALIA transitions from the water into high-speed flight, rapidly repositioning sensors or payloads across the battlespace without requiring a runway or launch vessel.

HALIA liftoff
04
Phase Four

Float Again

HALIA is designed to execute controlled water landings, return to sea-level sensing, and prepare for future relaunch cycles as testing progresses.

HALIA floating on water — head-on view

Stealth Floating

Only ~1 foot of body above water when floating. Extremely difficult to detect by radar or visually, enabling covert persistent presence in contested zones.

Patented HoverFoil™

US Patent 12,221,210 B2. Variable buoyancy architecture enabling HALIA's water-to-air transition. Additional patents filed in the US and Europe.

High Sea State Ops

Takeoff and land in 6-foot seas and 17+ knot winds — conditions that ground every other maritime drone platform currently in operation or development.

Mission Agnostic

18 lb payload capacity configurable for ISR sensors, comms relay, ASW sonobuoys, sonar arrays, strike payloads, or custom mission packages for any operation.

Attritable by Design

At a fraction of the cost of a P-8A Poseidon ($200M+) or a manned helicopter, HALIA can be deployed into high-threat zones where risking a $200M aircraft — or a human crew — is not an option.

Force Multiplier

Acts as a communications hub and sensor relay, dramatically amplifying the effectiveness of surface ships, submarines, and aerial drone networks already in the fleet.

HALIA drone on water
HALIA — PROTOTYPE TEST — SURFACE SKATE MODE
Core Innovation

The Innovation:
HoverFoil™

HALIA's core breakthrough is the transition from sea persistence to airborne speed.

HALIA is not simply a drone that floats or a USV that moves quickly. Its key innovation is the transition architecture that lets the system build speed on the water, reduce surface drag, and launch without a runway or catapult.

HoverFoil™ is designed to enable HALIA's unique operating loop: float quietly at sea, accelerate across the surface, launch into flight, reposition rapidly, and land back on the water.

HoverFoil design rendering
Water-to-air transition

Designed to bridge sea-level loiter and airborne speed

Reduced launch infrastructure

No runway, catapult, or large ship required

Mission flexibility

Enables repositionable payloads instead of static sensor placement

US Patent 12,221,210 B2
HALIA prototype from above on water
Performance Specifications

Modeled
Performance Targets

HALIA's current performance targets are based on engineering models and prototype test progression. The system has demonstrated float, takeoff, flight, and water landing events, with testing continuing toward full repeated mission cycles and expanded sea-state conditions. Final performance varies by payload, sea state, communications cadence, and repositioning frequency.

30+ Days
Sea Persistence
Modeled target — motors-off float mode, battery capacity, and mission duty cycle
100+ mph
Flight Speed
Modeled target, supported by ongoing prototype flight testing
120NM
Flight Range
Modeled target — current battery and payload assumptions
<60sec
Float to Airborne
✓ Demonstrated in prototype testing
18lbs
Payload Capacity
Modeled target — mission-configurable, including deployable sonar
6 ftSeas
Sea State Target
Target test envelope — validation testing progressing toward challenging conditions
US Patent
12,221,210 B2

HoverFoil™ Technology — LeVanta's patented variable buoyancy system is the core innovation enabling HALIA's unique float-to-flight transition. Additional IP filed in the US and Europe.

Missions

Choose the Mission

Explore how HALIA applies persistent sea-level operations and rapid airborne repositioning across three priority maritime missions.

Kinetic Operations

Kinetic Strike:
Persistent Maritime Strike Capability

HALIA is designed to combine extended maritime persistence with rapid response, giving commanders a new option for cost-effective kinetic effects in contested waters.

Traditional strike systems require commanders to balance readiness, availability, and cost. HALIA introduces a different approach: a compact, attritable platform designed to remain at sea for extended periods before transitioning to high-speed movement when called upon. Its dual-domain architecture is intended to offer operational flexibility, allowing forces to maintain a distributed presence without continuously deploying crewed vessels or aircraft.

1
Deploy & Position
HALIA deploys from ships, small boats, or expeditionary locations to establish a distributed presence across the operating area.
Distributed Deployment
›
2
Persistent Loiter
HALIA is designed to remain afloat with minimal power consumption, maintaining a low-profile presence while awaiting mission authorization.
30+ Day Modeled Target
›
3
Receive Authorization
HALIA receives mission instructions through integrated command-and-control systems, maintaining human authorization for kinetic engagement.
Human Authorized
›
4
Rapid Response
HALIA transitions from floating to high-speed movement across the water or through the air as operational requirements change.
Dual-Domain Mobility
›
5
Execute Kinetic Mission
Equipped with an intended mission-specific payload, HALIA is designed to support human-authorized kinetic operations against designated threats.
Mission Configurable
Persistent Strike Readiness
Wait at Sea

Designed to remain positioned in maritime operating areas for extended periods, reducing the need for continuous aircraft sorties or ship deployments while preserving responsive kinetic capability.

Dual-Domain Flexibility
Float. Skate. Fly.

HALIA combines low-profile sea persistence with rapid surface and airborne mobility, offering commanders greater flexibility in how and when human-authorized kinetic capabilities are employed.

Attritable Economics
Affordable Mass

Designed as a cost-effective alternative for missions that do not require exquisite weapons systems, enabling distributed kinetic capability at a fraction of the cost of traditional high-end strike platforms.

HALIA prototype on water
Competitive Landscape

Speed + Persistence
Across Domains

Representative maritime systems tend to optimize for one domain: USVs persist at sea, while airborne platforms move fast through the battlespace. HALIA is designed to combine both advantages — persistent sea-level operations with rapid airborne repositioning from the water.

Platform Type Persistence Speed Sea Ops Air Ops
► LeVanta HALIA Hybrid 30+ days modeled 100+ mph modeled Yes — float, land, lower sonar Yes — launch from water
Saildrone Voyager USV 100 days 5 kt Yes No
Exail DriX H-9 USV <20 days <13 kt Yes No
Anduril Ghost-X UAV 80 min cruise Not publicly listed No Yes
P-8A Poseidon Aircraft Sortie-based 490 kt No Yes

Representative platforms shown. Similar USV and UAV systems generally face the same tradeoff: they are built for either sea persistence or airborne speed, but not both.

Momentum

Backed by DoD Contracts
and Global Partners

Two active SBIR Phase II contracts from the US Air Force and US Navy provide direct DoD validation of HALIA's technology. An international MOU with Ukraine adds a live-conflict proving ground to the program.

SBIR Phase II — Active
$1.8M

US Air Force Contract

Active SBIR Phase II contract for maritime ISR — direct DoD validation of HALIA's technology and mission-critical applicability in contested maritime environments.

SBIR Phase II — Active
$1.4M

US Navy Contract

Active SBIR Phase II contract for persistent maritime surveillance — direct DoD validation of HALIA's technology for undersea detection and wide-area ocean coverage missions.

International Partnership
MOU

Ukraine Partnership

Signed MOU to develop, test, and build HALIA in Ukraine — a live conflict proving ground and one of the most demanding operational validation environments on earth.

Leadership

The Team
Behind HALIA

Combined expertise spanning every discipline required to deliver HALIA from concept through operational deployment — engineers, Navy pilots, founders, and warfighters.

Get in Touch

Let's Talk
HALIA.

Whether you're a potential military customer, program manager, partner, or investor — we want to hear from you.

Kelly Echols — CEO
+1 (801) 664-3403 kechols@levantatech.com info@levantatech.com levantatech.com
Request a Briefing →
Primary Missions
Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW)
Mine Countermeasures (MCM)
Kinetic Operations
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA)
Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance
Expanded Applications
Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW)
Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)
Communications Relay & Force Multiplier