The Naviator Wins 2025 Innovation Vanguard Award at XPONENTIAL

 
3 min

SubUAS is proud to announce that the Naviator has been named a winner at the 2025 Innovation Vanguard Awards, a prestigious honor presented by Inside Unmanned Systems in partnership with AUVSI. This milestone achievement was unveiled during the XPONENTIAL 2025 conference held in Houston, Texas, and positions the Naviator at the forefront of next-generation unmanned systems.

About the Innovation Vanguard Awards

The Innovation Vanguard Awards (IVA) were created to spotlight the most transformative technologies across air, land, sea, and space in both commercial and defense applications. The IVA program specifically recognizes breakthroughs demonstrating outstanding performance, meaningful innovation, and potential for wide-scale industry impact.

The Naviator was recognized in the “Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) / Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) of the Year” category, celebrating our pioneering work in creating the world’s first drone that both flies and swims with seamless domain transitions.

“This is more than a drone — it’s a new class of autonomous system,” said SubUAS CEO Dr. F. Javier Diez. “Being recognized at XPONENTIAL validates the technological and operational impact the Naviator is making across sectors.”

What Makes the Naviator Award-Worthy?

The Naviator represents a monumental leap in hybrid unmanned vehicle design. Key capabilities that set it apart include:

  • Seamless Air-Water-Air Transition: Dual-layered coaxial rotors allow rapid transition between flight and submerged navigation in under 2 seconds.
  • Multi-Domain Mission Capability: Performs inspections, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and data collection above and below the surface—all in a single sortie.
  • Modular & Scalable Design: Supports payloads ranging from 1 lb to 90+ lbs across variants from the NVB to the NVHL.
  • Autonomous Launch & Recovery (LaR): Capable of autonomous multi-drone deployment from compact maritime platforms, making it ideal for offshore wind, oil & gas, and naval missions.

Learn more about the Naviator system here.

Real-World Impact

With more than $36 million in U.S. Department of Defense contracts, dozens of live demonstrations, and growing commercial deployments in offshore energy, infrastructure, and environmental sectors, the Naviator is proving to be both mission-ready and market-relevant. Recent milestones include:

  • Dual-domain inspections at offshore wind farms
  • Infrastructure assessments with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • Partner deployments in Europe and the Middle East

The Innovation Vanguard Award underscores how the Naviator is reshaping how governments, utilities, and industrial operators perform complex, high-risk missions—safely, efficiently, and autonomously.

What’s Next?

SubUAS is accelerating our roadmap toward full-scale commercialization and global adoption with this recognition. We’re actively expanding strategic partnerships, scaling production, and exploring new security, environmental monitoring, and marine operations applications.

Interested in learning more or partnering with us? Reach out at info@thenaviator.com.

Explore More