Northrop Grumman Developing Long-Endurance UUVs

Manta Rays have long been a favoured object of study and admiration among scuba divers around the Great Barrier Reef. Inspired partially by their graceful gliding motion, Northrop Grumman is developing a new class of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) for marine applications.

The Manta Ray will need to be able to operate on long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments, with no need for on-site human logistics support – a unique but important mission needed to address the complex nature of undersea warfare. Northrop Grumman is developing its unique full-scale demonstration vehicle using several novel design attributes that support the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) vision of providing ground-breaking technology to create strategic surprise. Manta Ray will also be able to anchor to the seafloor in a low power state, while harvesting energy from the environment. “Our design can carry large payloads over long distances without the need for maintenance or refueling,” explained Todd Leavitt, VP, Naval & Oceanic Systems.

The UUV will have the C3 capability to enable long-duration operations with minimal human supervision. The data from Manta Ray will help the joint force make better decisions and gain advantage during missions. “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,” said Alan Lytle, VP, Strategy and Mission Solutions.

The development programme began in 2020 and the company recently won a Phase 2 contract to continue the work, including subsystem testing, followed by fabrication and in-water demonstrations of full-scale integrated vehicles. The company also broke ground on a new system integration and test lab that will use modeling and simulation to test the system’s software before being loaded onto the vehicle.