Exail achieves a world first with the 2,000 km autonomous transit of its DriX O-16 surface drone

Exail Technologies has recently reached a decisive milestone in maritime autonomy with its DriX O-16 surface drone.
During a campaign held from September 1 to 26, 2025, the 16-meter DriX completed a world first: an autonomous 1,100-nautical-mile (2,000 km) transit from La Ciotat (France) to Troia (Portugal) to take part in NATO’s REPMUS naval exercises.

Over six days, the drone sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar – one of the world’s busiest maritime passages – under remote supervision from Exail’s operations center in La Ciotat. It successfully demonstrated advanced decision-making capabilities for safe navigation in dense traffic, while also conducting seabed mapping operations along the way.

This achievement confirms the operational maturity and safety of Exail’s technology, already deployed in 19 countries with more than 100,000 hours of operations and nearly one million nautical miles sailed.