Mission Specialist Wraith Signals AeroVironment’s Next Step in Compact Unmanned Underwater Systems Capability

New expeditionary UUV delivers six-degree-of-freedom maneuverability, higher thrust, and modular mission flexibility in a compact platform

POTTSTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AeroVironment Inc. (“AV”) (NASDAQ: AVAV), a leading provider of all domain autonomous systems, today announced the launch of the Mission Specialist Wraith, the newest addition to the Mission Specialist Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) series developed by its wholly owned subsidiary, VideoRay. Designed for demanding subsea operations, Wraith delivers a new level of agility, power, and control in a compact, expeditionary-ready platform.

Engineered for extreme agility and precision in challenging subsea environments, Wraith delivers true six-degree-of-freedom maneuverability through 10 vectored thrusters, allowing it to hold any attitude—vertical, inverted, or fully rolled—while maintaining stability, power, and control in strong currents and at depth. The platform supports a wide range of payloads, including advanced imaging, navigation, and manipulation tools, making it well suited for subsea inspection, defense, and scientific missions.

“Modern operations increasingly depend on access, awareness, and freedom of maneuver below the surface,” said Chris Gibson, Chief Executive Officer at VideoRay. “Wraith gives forces a compact, rapidly deployable system that delivers the precision and control once reserved for much larger vehicles, helping operators extend reach, reduce risk to personnel, and respond faster in complex maritime environments. It expands what compact UUVs can achieve while improving overall mission efficiency.”

Built on VideoRay’s proven open-architecture Mission Specialist design philosophy, Wraith enables rapid reconfiguration, seamless third-party integration, and simplified field serviceability. With up to 80 pounds of forward thrust and simultaneous lift, the platform enables rapid direct-to-target transit and precise station-keeping, even in high-current environments.

The newly released Mission Specialist Wraith Expeditionary configuration marks the first step in a planned spiral development for the product. Future iterations will expand depth capability, payload capacity, endurance, and system flexibility, ensuring the Wraith platform continues to evolve alongside customer requirements and emerging technologies.

Details regarding VideoRay’s Mission Specialist Wraith are available at: https://videoray.com/products/mission-specialist-wraith

About VideoRay (an AV Company)

VideoRay, a wholly owned subsidiary of AeroVironment, is a global leader in underwater robotic systems, delivering innovative UUV solutions for defense, commercial, scientific, and public safety applications. With a focus on modularity, reliability, and mission adaptability, VideoRay continues to redefine what compact UUV platforms can achieve.

For more information, visit www.videoray.com.

About AeroVironment, Inc.

AeroVironment (“AV”) (NASDAQ: AVAV) is a defense technology leader delivering integrated capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. The Company develops and deploys autonomous systems, loitering munitions, counter-UAS technologies, space-based platforms, directed energy systems, and cyber and electronic warfare capabilities—built to meet the mission needs of today’s warfighter and tomorrow’s conflicts. At the core of these technologies lies AV_Halo, a modular, mission-ready suite of AI-powered software tools that empowers warfighters and enables full-battlefield dominance: detect, decide, deliver. With a national manufacturing footprint and a deep innovation pipeline, AV delivers proven systems and future-defining capabilities at speed, scale, and operational relevance. For more information, visit www.avinc.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain new ones; regulatory changes; competitor activities; market growth; product development challenges; and general economic conditions. For a more detailed discussion of these risks, please refer to AeroVironment’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.