Navy Halts Drone-Boat Orders; Aevex Shares Plunge 26% to Near 52-Week Low
AVEX is trading near its 52-week low of $10.55 (1.1% above the low) on elevated volume (4.0× avg).
Summary
The Navy has suspended purchases of Aevex's drone-launching speedboats over performance problems and the emergence of cheaper one-way attack drones as alternatives, and the stock is down 26% to about $11 — near its 52-week low and less than half its April IPO-day close. The Navy has spent $136.8 million on the boats to date, so the program is not trivial, and the timing is brutal: Aevex closed its $650 million BlackSea acquisition — the maker of these boats — just last month. Aevex was guiding 2026 sales of $700-720 million versus $433 million in 2025, with most revenue from U.S. government contracts, so a halted Navy program hits both the growth story and the rationale for the BlackSea deal. Other drone names (AeroVironment, Kratos, Karman) were unaffected, making this company-specific rather than sector-wide.
At the time of this announcement, AVEX was trading at $10.67 on NYSE in the Industrial Applications And Services sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.4B. The 52-week trading range was $10.55 to $42.34. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Dow Jones Newswires.