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Northrop Grumman has successfully completed the final assembly of a full-size uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) prototype known as Manta Ray as part of a DARPA program to inform future UUV design.
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Manta Ray was built as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program aimed at advancing key technologies to benefit future UUV designs, including techniques to manage energy, increased payload capacity, low-power propulsion and more.
DARPA’s Manta Ray program seeks to demonstrate critical technologies for a new class of long-duration, long-range, payload-capable UUVs as part of a multi-phase effort that includes at-sea demonstration of critical technologies.
Northrop Grumman’s design was selected to proceed to Phase 2 of the program in December 2021, with Commander Kyle Woerner, Manta Ray’s program manager, saying at the time: “DARPA’s Manta Ray program has made significant breakthroughs towards enabling payload-capable autonomous underwater vehicles to operate independently of crewed vessels or support infrastructure.”
Todd Leavitt, vice-president of naval and oceanic systems at Northrop Grumman, said in 2022: “Our design can carry large payloads over long distances without the need for maintenance or refueling.”
The Manta Ray program plans to advance key technologies that will benefit future UUV designs, including, but not limited to:
- Novel energy management techniques for UUV operations and undersea energy harvesting techniques at operationally relevant depths.
- Low-power, high-efficiency undersea propulsion systems.
- New low-power means of underwater detection and classification of hazards or counter-detection threats.
- Mission management approaches for extended durations while accounting for dynamic maritime environments.
- Unique approaches for leveraging existing maritime data sets and exploiting novel maritime parameters for high-efficiency navigation and/or C3.
- New approaches to mitigate biofouling, corrosion, and other material degradation for long-duration missions.
Leavitt’s comments were expanded upon by Alan Lytle, vice-president of strategy and mission solutions at Northrop Grumman, who said: “Manta Ray will provide payload capability from the sea, making it a critical component of subsea warfare and the DOD’s Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) vision.”
If successful, this new class of UUV will give the combatant commander an amplification of capacity without disrupting current operations by remaining independent of manned vessels and ports once deployed.
“By investing in diverse solutions, DARPA strengthens our ability to transition innovative undersea technologies to our national security partners. Manta Ray is uniquely positioning itself to simultaneously introduce a new class of underwater vehicle while contributing key component technologies to other vital undersea programs,” CMDR Woerner explained in 2021.
