
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Martin Defense Group to move to Phase 2 of the Manta Ray unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) program, the agency said Monday. In this phase, the companies will work on subsystem testing before moving to fabricate full-scale models to use for in-water demonstrations. The Manta Ray effort aims to demonstrate technologies to allow payload-capable autonomous UUVs “to operate on long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments,” the agency…