{"id":36900,"date":"2026-09-19T14:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T18:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=36900"},"modified":"2026-09-17T11:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:12:04","slug":"darpa-manta-ray-drone-hibernates-seafloor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/darpa-manta-ray-drone-hibernates-seafloor\/36900\/","title":{"rendered":"Northrop Grumman\u2019s Manta Ray underwater drone for DARPA fits into five shipping containers, glides by pumping seawater, and can anchor to the ocean floor to \u201chibernate\u201d and save energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What if an underwater drone<\/a> could extend its missions by spending more time standing still? Northrop Grumman\u2019s Manta Ray<\/a>, built for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is designed to conserve energy by gliding through the water and anchoring on the ocean floor in a low-power \u201chibernation\u201d state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prototype completed full-scale ocean tests<\/a> off Southern California in February and March 2024, but the announcement did not establish a maximum mission duration. Its most interesting feature is an approach to a familiar problem (how to make stored energy last longer when recharging is difficult).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Manta Ray glides underwater<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Manta Ray needs to go up or down, it changes buoyancy by pumping sea water to change the weight of the vehicle,\u201d explained Brian Theobald, Northrop Grumman\u2019s chief engineer for Manta Ray. Its wings convert that rising and sinking into forward motion, much as an airborne glider turns a descent into distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: A man saw a gull struggling to fly from a Dutch canal with a blue plastic bag tangled around its legs, jumped into the water as dozens watched and freed the bird, but not before getting bitten and nearly becoming trapped in underwater plants himself<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Northrop says these buoyancy adjustments take only a few minutes at the top or bottom of a gliding path. Between adjustments, the vehicle moves with minimal energy use, although that does not mean its sensors, computers, or other systems need no power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that make it a propeller-free drone<\/a>? It does not. DARPA\u2019s tests explicitly included buoyancy-driven movement, propellers, and control surfaces, so this is a mixed approach rather than a machine that relies on gliding alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five containers save onboard energy before launch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Northrop designed Manta Ray to separate into modules that fit inside five standard shipping containers. The prototype traveled from Maryland to California in sections before being reassembled, avoiding the need to make that journey under its own underwater power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is more than a packing trick. Shipping it close to its operating area preserves onboard energy for the actual mission and can reduce pressure on crowded naval piers, DARPA says. It saves the vehicle\u2019s stored power, not the energy needed to transport the containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the seafloor becomes a parking spot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The other major energy-saving feature is hibernation. Northrop says Manta Ray can anchor to the seafloor and enter a low-power state, an idea closer to a laptop\u2019s sleep mode than an engine running at idle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But staying underwater creates maintenance problems that a bigger battery cannot solve. DARPA<\/a> lists corrosion, biofouling (the buildup of marine organisms on submerged surfaces<\/a>), and other material damage among the challenges the program is intended to address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not minor details for a machine expected to operate without nearby support crews. A practical long-duration vehicle has to keep its hull, moving parts, and instruments working, not simply conserve enough electricity to switch back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Old radioactive material from Oak Ridge could power the seafloor, but the underwater station still exists mostly in tests<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Could ocean heat help recharge underwater vehicles?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Renewable energy<\/a> is another part of the wider story, although it should not be confused with a proven Manta Ray capability. Northrop and Seatrec developed the \u201cMission Unlimited UUV Station<\/a>\u201d concept, pairing underwater charging technology with Seatrec\u2019s work on harvesting energy from ocean temperature differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seatrec\u2019s systems turn naturally occurring temperature differences into electricity<\/a>, offering a potential way to recharge ocean instruments without repeated battery replacements. DARPA also includes underwater energy harvesting among Manta Ray\u2019s research objectives, but an objective is not confirmation that the prototype can power itself indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the ocean tests actually proved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Northrop reports that the prototype demonstrated gliding, ascending, descending, turning, hovering, and anchoring during its tests. It also says some of those actions were performed autonomously, which is more specific than assuming every stage of a complete mission has already been automated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARPA\u2019s public program page describes long-range, long-duration operations as the target of a technology demonstration effort. It does not provide a verified maximum mission length, so neither \u201cyears underwater\u201d nor unlimited endurance should be treated as an established performance figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this means for ocean science<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Manta Ray is a defense project, not an announced environmental monitoring mission. Still, the engineering problem it tackles is familiar to ocean scientists, who already use smaller gliders to measure temperature, salinity, and other conditions over weeks or months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Scientists say we have seen less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor, and the unknown part is bigger than the map suggests<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)<\/a> has used underwater gliders to support hurricane research and forecasts<\/a> since 2014. Their measurements help scientists describe the warm ocean layers that can fuel storm intensification, information that matters far beyond a laboratory when coastal residents are checking the forecast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That makes efficient underwater operation worth watching, without labeling Manta Ray itself a proven environmental solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official overview of its design and testing was published on Northrop Grumman<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if an underwater drone could extend its missions by spending more time standing still? Northrop Grumman\u2019s Manta Ray, built for the Defense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":36924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36900"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36954,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36900\/revisions\/36954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}