Via its commercial solutions opening contracting mechanism, DIU is trying to find solutions that meet the U.S. military’s need for undersea kamikaze drones and UUVs that can be launched from submarines.

To address the first challenge, the organization is looking for hunter-killer systems that can be deployed from a government-provided platform or pier.

“The host vessels can either be surface or housed subsurface and most likely be uncrewed. The vehicle must be able to deliver a payload with the speed and endurance necessary to hone in and interdict a static or moving target,” per the solicitation for low-cost “undersea effectors.”

The Defense Department is aiming to acquire systems that are about 12.75 inches in diameter, 120 inches in length, and less than or equal to 800 pounds while equipped with government-furnished payloads.

To address the second challenge, DIU is also on the hunt for UUVs that can be launched and recovered via a torpedo tube without the need for drivers.

“The Vehicle should operate for at least 2 days and/or 120 nautical miles while operating with a payload,” officials wrote. “The proposed UUV should be able to support multiple communication pathways to the host submarine. Tethered options will be considered. Accurate long-range navigation systems limiting the need for GPS, transponders, or bottom lock is preferred.”

The system must not be more than 21 inches in diameter and 256 inches in length, according to the solicitation.

DIU noted that the DOD has a critical need for “affordable small and medium” UUVs that can perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and expeditionary missions.

“Current and legacy systems are designed to be multi-mission, exquisite systems requiring long production timelines, significant training, reconfiguration prior to mission, and technical experts to process data. However, there are situations where a single use, mission specific UUV can be more desirable to the end user in the kinetic, ISR, and expeditionary domains,” officials wrote.

DIU has played a major role in the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which aims to add thousands of low-cost uncrewed systems and counter-drone platforms to the U.S. military’s arsenal. The solicitation released Wednesday didn’t explicitly say whether it was tied to Replicator efforts, but it appears to be focused on those types of technologies.

Industry responses to the solicitation are due July 24.

The DOD is looking to award other transaction agreements.

“Companies are advised that any prototype OT agreement awarded in response to this [effort] … may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of further competitive procedures. The follow-on production contract or transaction will be available for use by one or more organizations in the Department of Defense and, as a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the prototype OT,” officials wrote.

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Detailed budget materials are being released on a rolling basis this week, but the officials provided insights into the nearly $1 trillion spending plan in an off-camera press briefing Thursday morning.

“This budget is the first year that we are calling out — specifically — our autonomy line in its own section. So, it will be $13.4 billion for autonomy and autonomous systems,” a senior defense official told DefenseScoop. 

“For counter [unmanned aerial systems], the total request is $3.1 billion across the services,” they also confirmed. 

The new requests for additional drone and counter-drone funding come as the U.S. military confronts serious challenges integrating and defending against the rapidly evolving weapons, which often cost much less to produce than the multimilllion-dollar missiles that have been deployed to take them down.

The senior defense official supplied a high-level breakdown on the robotics and autonomy-enabling budget lines.

“For unmanned and remotely-operated aerial vehicles, it’s $9.4 billion; autonomous ground vehicles, $210 million; on the water autonomous systems, $1.7 billion; underwater capabilities, $734 million; and enabling capabilities — that’s the autonomy software, the things that underlie all these systems, working and operating together as a central brain — it’s $1.2 billion to work across all those platforms on autonomy,” they said.

A senior Navy official at the briefing also pointed to what they consider to be a “big increase” associated with autonomy investments for the sea service.

“[It’s] $5.3 billion across all systems. And that’s $2.2 billion above FY 2025. That includes procuring three MQ-25s, which we’ll have our first flight in 2026 — and then additional unmanned air [assets], new efforts in unmanned undersea and in unmanned surface, to include procuring our medium unmanned surface vessel. So, we have a lot of efforts across all domains,” the senior Navy official told DefenseScoop.

Two aircraft carrier strike groups operating in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility are “engaged in combat every day” against enemy-launched drones, they noted.

“We have the [USS Gerald R. Ford] that is just now deploying. Ford will deploy with some additional counter-UAS capabilities, and then we’ll continue to look and learn and develop those kits that we sent before, and [applying] part of what we’re learning,” the senior Navy official said.

Representatives from the other military services did not share information about their departments’ autonomy toplines during the briefing.

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Smith was removed from that position “due to a loss of confidence based on a complaint substantiated by an Office of the Naval Inspector General investigation,” officials wrote in a press release, adding that the sea service “maintains the highest standards for leaders and holds them accountable when those standards are not met.”

The release did not provide details about the nature of the complaint that was made against Smith and substantiated by the IG. DefenseScoop has reached out to the Navy for more information.

According to the announcement, Smith was removed from his position as PEO by Brett Seidle, acting assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition. Melissa Kirkendall, executive director for PEO USC, has temporarily assumed the duties of program executive officer. Smith has been temporarily reassigned to the staff of Naval Sea Systems Command.

The PEO for unmanned and small combatants plays a key role in the Navy’s pursuit of robotic platforms, including uncrewed surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles, which are key to the service’s push to increase the capacity of the fleet for a variety of mission sets and keep sailors out of harm’s way. The official who holds that position is the acquisition authority for the “design, development, build, maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems, mine warfare systems, special warfare systems, expeditionary warfare systems and small surface combatants,” according to the Navy.

Smith had served in the PEO USC role since June 2023.

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DIU issued a solicitation to vendors this week via its commercial solutions opening acquisition pathway for a “combat autonomous maritime platform.” The move comes as the Navy is pursuing Project 33 and other initiatives to beef up its fleet with robotic platforms and prepare for a potential war with China in the Pacific region. Maritime drones are seen as a cost-effective means of boosting the sea service’s capacity and capabilities while reducing risks to sailors by keeping them out of harm’s way.

“To maximize operational effectiveness in contested environments, the United States military requires enhanced capabilities for deploying large payloads across extended ranges. Current UUV capabilities present limitations in range and payload capacity, hindering the effective deployment of critical resources in certain operational scenarios,” officials wrote in the new solicitation. “The DoD seeks commercially available, demonstration-ready uncrewed systems that address these limitations, offering a scalable and cost-effective solution for long-range, high-capacity payload deployment.”

The CAMP program isn’t DIU’s first rodeo when it comes to UUVs. Last year, in partnership with the Navy, the organization awarded contracts to Anduril, Oceaneering International and Kongsberg Discovery to prototype large displacement unmanned underwater vehicles. However, the new CAMP platforms will be much bigger and have additional capabilities, a DIU spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

“These are an order of magnitude larger, much longer range, and carry even larger payloads. This is a different class of vehicle. For example, think of LDUUV as a sprinter van and CAMP as a moving truck,” the spokesperson said in an email. “These will be pier launched vs shipboard launched, based on anticipated size.”

The new solicitation isn’t being issued because the LDUUV prototypes didn’t meet expectations, according to DIU.

“Quite the opposite. We are building from the success from the LDUUV project, and attempting this with even larger and longer range UUVs,” the spokesperson said.

Officials want an autonomous system that can transit more than 1,000 nautical miles, go deeper than 200 meters underwater and release a variety of payloads of various sizes — including payloads that are 21 feet in length and 21 inches in diameter.

They also desire platforms that can communicate “across the air/water interface (acoustic and Radio Frequency)” and operate in GPS-denied environments, among other attributes.

Vendor responses are due May 1. DIU plans to move quickly into phase two — which is expected to start just four weeks after the close of the solicitation and include in-water live demonstrations of companies’ offerings.

Prototype other transaction agreements that are awarded may result in follow-on production contracts or agreements after successful prototype completion, according to DIU.

“The follow-on production contract or agreement will be available for use by one or more organizations within the Department of Defense. As a result, the magnitude of the follow-on production contract or agreement could be significantly larger than that of the Prototype OT agreement,” officials wrote.

Meanwhile, the Navy is pursuing other underwater drones, such as the extra-large UUV named Orca. That platform, built by Boeing, is an 85 ton, 85-feet-long unmanned diesel-electric submarine. Its design was inspired by Boeing’s Echo Voyager, which has a range of up to 6,500 nautical miles and can accommodate a modular payload section up to 34 feet in length, according to a Congressional Research Service report. However, the Orca differs in some respects to meet military requirements and it appears to be significantly larger than the Echo Voyager.

Construction of the Orca XLE-1 is complete, and developmental and operational testing of the system was slated to continue through the third quarter of this fiscal year.

“Orca, and other platforms like her, are an important step forward as we drive towards our future hybrid fleet, which is going be composed of manned and unmanned platforms. It’s a hybrid fleet that we know we will need to maintain our warfighting advantage,” then Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said late last year while touring Boeing’s manufacturing facility, according to a Navy release.

Franchetti was later fired as CNO by President Donald Trump in February along with several other senior military officers. Since then, Adm. James Kilby has been performing the duties of CNO as observers wait for Trump to announce his pick for a new service chief.

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Anduril describes its new Copperhead technology as a “high-speed, software-defined family of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) built for delivery by autonomous systems.”

The munition variant has been dubbed Copperhead-M.

“Despite the rapid advances in autonomous vehicles across air, surface, and subsea domains, torpedoes aren’t built at scale and production remains frozen in Cold War-era designs. Current systems are expensive, slow to produce, and tightly coupled to legacy platforms like nuclear submarines and warships. In addition, the U.S. and its allies need far more autonomous, quickly-deployable subsea systems that can integrate with the existing manned fleet and expanding fleet of autonomous subsea, surface, and air vehicles,” the company stated in a press release.

Anduril’s new platform comes in two models — the Copperhead-100 and Copperhead-500 — with different payload capacities.

The 100 model has a 12.75-inch diameter vehicle that’s about 2.5 meters in length and carries 100 pounds dry weight, while the 500 model is 21 inches in diameter and carries roughly 500 pounds dry weight. The top speed for both systems will be more than 30 knots, according to Shane Arnott, vice president of programs and engineering at Anduril.

The hull form is more square-shaped than a traditional torpedo which will make it easier to produce, Arnott told reporters ahead of the official announcement.

“Our production system is aimed at being able to produce very high hundreds to thousands of these systems a year,” he said.

Anduril already builds unmanned submarines, such as the Dive-XL, that the company says will be able to carry “dozens” of the smaller Copperhead-100Ms or “multiple” Copperhead-500Ms.

The contractor also envisions the new torpedoes being air-launched from cargo planes or large drones. An unmanned aerial system in the Group 4 category could carry the Copperhead-100. Because of its heavier weight, a Group 5 UAS would be needed to carry the Copperhead-500, Arnott said.

He noted that the Copperhead uses the company’s Lattice software platform.

“Given our products are software defined with Lattice means that as the threat evolves, we can upgrade our seeking technology so as the threats move and change their signature, etc., we can move with it and at the pace of relevance with just software upgrades alone,” he said.

Anduril is touting the Copperhead-M as a more cost-effective means of attacking adversaries’ unmanned underwater vehicles and uncrewed surface vessels.

Arnott declined to say what the unit cost of the Copperhead will be, but suggested it would be “a fraction” of the cost of existing torpedoes such as the Mk 48.

“As the fight’s changing, subsea is getting much more populated, particularly with enemy UUVs and USVs. It doesn’t really make sense that you would expend a Mark 48, for instance, on an enemy … UUV or a USV, where that munition actually costs multiple times the cost of the UUV,” Arnott said.

He told DefenseScoop that customers would be able to determine how autonomous the Copperheads will be in terms of selecting their targets.

“The systems are set up very similar to out other uncrewed systems, where you can give it parameters that are very much controlled by the customer or by the operator on what the engagement criteria are. So within parameters that are set by the operator, the robot can make decisions on which of the targets that it addresses,” he said.

Last week, Anduril also unveiled a new undersea sensing network capability called Seabed Sentry, which the company says can be deployed by autonomous underwater vehicles.

The contractor describes the tech as “AI-enabled, mobile, undersea sensor nodes networked together for persistent monitoring and real time communication,” that can “sense, process, and communicate critical subsea information at the edge.”

The systems have an endurance of “months to years” and a depth rating of more than 500 meters, according to Anduril.

The technology leverages Lattice software platform and, like the Copperhead, is designed to be deployable by unmanned underwater vehicles, such as the contractor’s Dive family of uncrewed submarines, according to a press release.

Arnott suggested Copperheads will be able to exchange data with their launch platforms, Seabed Sentry nodes and each other.

“The overriding software that sits on top of that is Lattice … that gives the ability for all of those systems to talk to each other,” Arnott said.

“We utilize acoustic technologies as well as some optical in order to talk under the waves. We’ve spent a lot of time in our software making sure that we can deal with the extremely low bandwidth that you get subsea. When you’re in the air domain, it is very easy to communicate, the laws of physics are much kinder to you. But we have spent a lot of time dealing with both low power but also the ability to pack a lot in very, very thin bandwidths, in order to enable that collaborative capability, which is central to all of our subsea products that we’re now going public with across a number of different segments here,” he said.

Anduril has been testing Copperhead and expects to move into production later this year.

“We are in the water with the Copperhead at the moment. We are working through finalization of that before we head into production,” Arnott told reporters.

The unveiling of the technology comes as the Navy is pursuing Project 33 and other initiatives to add more unmanned platforms and firepower to the fleet in preparation for a potential war against China in the Indo-Pacific in the coming years. The service has already been experimenting with using maritime drones to launch loitering munitions.

Arnott declined to say whether the company already has a U.S. military customer for Copperhead-M.

“We cannot talk publicly about who we’re working with on the government side,” he told reporters. “We can’t talk to the contracts.”

He noted that Anduril funded the initial development of the technology with its own money.

Anduril is expected to display the Copperhead system at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference this week.

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“Unmanned [platforms] will be a very important part of the way future wars are fought. Just the idea of survivability for human beings — to drive cost and time in ways that manned systems do not,” Hegseth said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday.

In responses to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s advanced policy questions (APQs) that were submitted to Congress ahead of that testimony, the secretary of defense nominee also made multiple statements pledging to support drone-enabling efforts across the individual military services and the joint force. 

Drones and swarms of unmanned systems are reshaping contemporary warfare and U.S. national security. Informed partly by lessons from the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as still-emerging conflicts in the Middle East, Defense Department leadership during the Biden administration launched several high-dollar efforts to accelerate production and ultimately expand the military’s arsenal of such capabilities.

As senators suggested at Tuesday’s hearing, Hegseth — a former Fox News host who retired from the National Guard in 2021 at the rank of major — is considered a controversial choice for U.S. defense secretary. He dodged multiple questions from Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats during the hearing about reports of unprofessional behavior in past work environments and Trump’s vision for the DOD, among other topics.

Still, during his testimony and in his APQ responses, Hegseth spotlighted his belief that “unmanned systems are a fundamental part of the future warfighting environment.”

At one point in the more than three-hour-long hearing, he pointed to significant challenges U.S. shipyards are confronting with manpower issues and other workforce shortfalls, and how unmanned systems could offset those.

“We also see adversaries that have been able to innovate themselves in ways that their ship-building capacity is — I won’t reveal it at this hearing — but multitudes and multitudes beyond our capabilities. So it needs to be a rapid investment, a rapid-field issue, and then we need to incentivize outside entities to fill the gap. You talk a lot about [unmanned aerial vehicles]. UAVs are very important. But there’s also a picture of UUVs — unmanned underwater vehicles — that will be a part of amplifying the impact of our Navy, because this administration has allowed our number of ships to drop below 300,” Hegseth told the committee.

In his APQ answers regarding the Navy, he said the DOD needs to “expeditiously move to integrate unmanned systems in [its] surface and undersea fleets.” 

“If confirmed, I will direct the Service Secretaries, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering to accelerate adoption and integration of cost-effective and highly capable unmanned systems to transition to the force of the future,” Hegseth wrote.

Further, if lawmakers confirm his nomination, Hegseth said he would also prioritize enhancing the Marine Corps’ ability to operate in contested littoral operation environments — “emphasizing long-range precision fires, advanced reconnaissance, and unmanned systems to support distributed operations.”

The nominee additionally committed to comprehensively examining how the Pentagon can best further its missions to counter larger UAS. Notably, he left open the potential for a reallocation of roles and responsibilities with respect to the Joint Counter Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Office (JCO).

Currently, the Army functions as DOD’s executive agent for that office.

“The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have reinforced the need for the Department to effectively counter small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), and that is inherently a Joint effort. If confirmed, I will wholeheartedly support the effort to effectively counter sUAS to ensure that the Joint Force has the protection it needs,” Hegseth wrote.

Following this hearing, Hegseth’s nomination now faces a vote of the full Senate for confirmation.

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The sea service plans to add a slew of robo-ships of various shapes, sizes and mission sets to its inventory in the coming years. Last month, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti laid out a new initiative called Project 33 that aims to scale robotic and autonomous systems across the fleet by 2027 so that maritime forces will be ready for a potential war against China.

Unmanned platforms not only keep sailors out of harm’s way, but they provide opportunities to greatly expand warfighting capacity at less cost than traditional Navy vessels. However, there are concerns that their operations could be impeded, including via problems with their navigation tools.

A new sources-sought notice released Friday requested industry feedback on “enhanced navigation” capabilities for autonomous uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), aimed at addressing some of those issues.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division “is seeking information on localization techniques that can enable missions when Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data is degraded or unavailable and where an a priori map (bathymetric, topographic, etc.) is not known,” the RFI states.

“Sensing modalities of interest include but are not limited to acoustic, electro-optic, and magnetic which are suitable for deployment on platforms such as UUVs and USVs ranging in size from man-portable to large diameter vehicles. Feature extraction and general perception processing approaches should be considered. Solutions can augment inertial navigation systems to limit accumulation of position error (drift) or provide standalone localization via loop closure methods and should be able to converge within a timeframe that is relevant for real-time operation without an operator in the loop,” the document added.

In a separate notice released to industry Friday, officials further outlined their desire for “embedded autonomy” solutions for maritime drones.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division is on the hunt for capabilities that could help UUVs and USVs perform “dynamic, reactive missions” based on real-time sensor observations, without human intervention, according to that RFI.

Technologies of interest include obstacle avoidance; track-and-follow capabilities: dynamic route replanning; in-situ task reprioritization; autonomous underwater vehicle and sensor health monitoring; multi-pass and search route optimizations, and others.

Responses to both RFIs are due Nov. 26.

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This news marks the first public report of technologies that made the Defense Department’s cut for Replicator 1.2 — and it also follows the company’s recently revealed plans to launch a new factory in Rhode Island to speed-up the manufacturing of these advanced uncrewed platforms.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks unveiled the Replicator initiative one year ago as a strategic effort to deter China by incentivizing and accelerating industrial production capacity and the military’s adoption of attritable, autonomous systems in multiple combat domains — through replicable processes — by mid-2025.

Hicks has been frank about DOD leaders’ aims to be deliberately tight-lipped and secretive about certain aspects of the project as it comes into fruition. Ahead of the Pentagon’s official announcement, DefenseScoop reported in April that the first tranche of capability selections to be expedited through this initial pursuit — referred to as Replicator 1.1 — included loitering munitions, counter-drone assets, and multiple types of unmanned surface vessels.

Hicks mentioned during a conference keynote last week that the Defense Innovation Unit and all three military departments are “working on a second tranche of [all-domain attritable autonomy, or ADA2] systems together.”

Sources who spoke to DefenseScoop on the condition of anonymity this week confirmed that Anduril’s Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles were put forward for Replicator by the Navy’s program office for advanced undersea systems — PMS 394 — and ultimately selected alongside several other technologies for the second tranche.

According to Anduril’s website, “the 3-ton Dive-LD is able to autonomously conduct missions for up to 10 days with an architecture that scales for multi-week missions,” and it’s “ideal for a variety of missions such as undersea battlespace intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine counter-warfare, anti-submarine warfare, seafloor mapping and more.”

The platforms have a 3D-printed exterior and are equipped to conduct missions at up to 6,000 meters of ocean depth.

One source told DefenseScoop that the Dive-LD systems cost about $2.5 million each.

“We have nothing to announce or confirm regarding Replicator 1, tranche 2 selections,” Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told DefenseScoop in an email Wednesday.

An Anduril spokesperson declined to comment on the Replicator initiative. The Navy has not yet provided comment.

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Technology Operational Experimentation Event 25.2 is part of a campaign led by the Office of Naval Research-Global that will look at emerging tech to support operational objectives related to “subsea and seabed warfare,” according to a new sources-sought notice.

One of the three focus areas will be on capabilities that can monitor and “defend underwater infrastructure and facilities to deny adversary undersea reconnaissance via emplaced devices or underwater vehicles.” That includes sensors and tools for “automated target recognition,” per an attachment to the notice.

Lawmakers have voiced concerns about potential threats posed by adversaries’ maritime drones operating in U.S. waters and near American military facilities. They’ve suggested the Pentagon may need to procure new tools to counter those types of systems.

“Incursions of unmanned aerial vehicles into United States airspace is an issue of concern. The committee believes that potential incursions of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) could pose similar problems for our security,” members of the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote in their report for the SASC version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, suggesting Pentagon leadership should consider “whether the Department needs to acquire different or enhanced capabilities to neutralize future threats from UUVs.”

During a counter-drone panel at NDIA’s Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition last week, Mike Dickerson, executive director of the Navy’s maritime accelerated response capability cell, highlighted the growing threats that the sea service must contend with.

“It’s not just unmanned aerial systems. It is also in the surface and underwater domains. But really, from my perspective, both systems in the surface and the underwater domains are following a very similar pathway to what we saw with the unmanned aircraft threat. They may be a few years behind, but it’s following the exact same exponential increase in capability and in proliferation across the board. And obviously we’re going to continue to face these challenges as technologies evolve and as novel, innovative ways to employ them continue to change. But I personally believe that with the right approaches, the right partnerships, and really with targeting some of the investments in the appropriate areas, that we’ll remain postured to appropriately address this threat,” Dickerson said.

The Navy has been eyeing potential solutions.

Last year, the service sent a notice to industry that it was seeking technologies related to seabed and port security for defense against divers and UUVs, including capabilities to support detection, tracking and fire control needed for engagement of potential undersea threats.

The Navy has also worked with the Defense Innovation Unit to pursue targeting-related technologies through Project Automatic Target Recognition using Machine Learning Operations for Maritime Operations — also known as Project AMMO.

For TOEE 25.2, other focus areas include capabilities that facilitate autonomous undersea navigation, collaborative autonomy and mission behaviors “during long range unmanned underwater transits without exposing the platform to detection,” as well as tools and decision aids that enhance command and control and “enable effective planning and mission coordination of distributed [subsea and seabed warfare] assets,” according to the new notice.

The experimentation campaign is being planned amid a broader push by the sea service — and the Defense Department writ large — to acquire AI and autonomy tools to both aid commanders’ decision-making and enable uncrewed platforms to operate collaboratively or as part of a larger network of manned and unmanned systems.

The interest in enabling technologies comes as the Navy is pursuing large UUVs to beef up its undersea capabilities for long-range intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and other missions, without putting sailors in harm’s way with manned submarines.

In February, the Defense Innovation Unit in partnership with the Navy’s program office for advanced undersea systems, announced that three vendors — Anduril Industries, Oceaneering International and Kongsberg Discovery — had been awarded contracts to prototype large undersea drones for the U.S. military.

“Undersea warfare is critical to success in the Pacific and other contested environments, providing needed autonomous underwater sensing and payload delivery in dispersed, long-range, deep and contested environments is key. Crewed submarines are high-value, high-resource capital platforms necessary for crucial combat missions. In particular, the U.S. military requires a fleet of Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (LDUUVs) with diverse capabilities,” DIU said in a release at the time.

Separately, in December 2023, the Navy took delivery of its first Orca unmanned submarine. The extra-large UUV is intended to be a high-endurance undersea drone with a modular payload bay that can travel long distances autonomously and lay mines or perform other missions.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the TOEE 25.2 experimentation will inform Navy science-and-technology investments — including for further development, transition, or divestiture — according to the notice.

“Limited technical assessments” of capabilities performed by government personnel at contractor facilities are slated to take place in the October-November timeframe.

According to officials, the Office of Naval Research-Global intends to invite contractors with “standout systems” to participate in the TOEE 25.2 experimentation series throughout fiscal 2025. “Limited objective experiments” and an “advanced capability experiment” at government ranges are planned for January 2025 and September 2025, respectively.

Responses to the RFI are due Sept. 27. Before the deadline, the sea service plans to hold a virtual industry day Aug. 28 to discuss the initiative.

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The effort was part of DARPA’s Manta Ray program, which began in 2020 and aims to advance technologies for a “new class” of autonomous UUVs that could be used by the Navy for long-range and long-duration missions.

According to the agency, the project seeks to demonstrate:

• 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 command, control and communications.
• New approaches to mitigate biofouling, corrosion, and other material degradation for long-duration missions

Northrop Grumman and PacMar Technologies are the two performers for the maritime drone program. DARPA announced the awardees for phase 2 of the project in December 2021.

Northrop’s platform, which was described as an “extra-large” UUV, recently completed “full-scale, in-water testing” off the coast of Southern California in February and March, DARPA said in the release.

“Testing demonstrated at-sea hydrodynamic performance, including submerged operations using all the vehicle’s modes of propulsion and steering: buoyancy, propellers, and control surfaces,” according to the agency.

DARPA is in talks with the Navy on the next steps for testing and transitioning the technology, the organization said.

“Our successful, full-scale Manta Ray testing validates the vehicle’s readiness to advance toward real-world operations after being rapidly assembled in the field from modular subsections,” Kyle Woerner, DARPA program manager for Manta Ray, said in a statement. “Once deployed, the vehicle uses efficient, buoyancy-driven gliding to move through the water. The craft is designed with several payload bays of multiple sizes and types to enable a wide variety of naval mission sets.”

In September, the organization announced that an in-water “splash test” was conducted off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, for PacMar’s scaled prototype. The objective was to verify sensors, vehicle hydrodynamic performance and autonomy behaviors.

“Splashing a vehicle is a major milestone for an undersea program,” Woerner said in a statement after that event concluded. “This test provides important insights into key systems, allows us to validate assumptions and models, and gives us valuable data in preparation for our upcoming full-scale at-sea demonstrations.”

PacMar continues to test its full-scale energy-harvesting system, DARPA noted in Wednesday’s release.

The Manta Ray program is unfolding as the U.S. Navy pursues new robo-vessels to help fulfill its vision for a future “hybrid” fleet of manned and unmanned platforms and enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomy.

The sea service has been experimenting with a variety of UUVs, uncrewed surface vehicles and unmanned aerial systems.

Maritime drones are seen as a cost-effective means of boosting the Navy’s capacity and capabilities while reducing risks to sailors by keeping them out of harm’s way at a time when service officials view China as their main competitor and are preparing for a potential conflict in the Pacific region.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti sees robotic systems and other emerging technologies as a way to “put more players on the field.”

In December, the Navy received the first Orca XLUUV from Boeing for additional trials. The diesel-electric submarine is an “85-ton, 85-feet-long” vessel, according to Capt. Scot Searles, program manager for unmanned maritime systems. The platform underwent at-sea testing, including above- and below-surface maneuvers before delivering the system.

Officials want to field a high-endurance undersea drone with a modular payload bay that can travel long distances autonomously and lay mines or perform other missions without putting sailors at risk.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit announced that Anduril Industries, Oceaneering International and Kongsberg Discovery had been awarded contracts to prototype large undersea drones. The Navy’s program office for advanced undersea systems —PMS 394 —which falls under Naval Sea Systems Command, is teaming with DIU on the effort.

“Undersea warfare is critical to success in the Pacific and other contested environments, providing needed autonomous underwater sensing and payload delivery in dispersed, long-range, deep and contested environments is key. Crewed submarines are high-value, high-resource capital platforms necessary for crucial combat missions. In particular, the U.S. military requires a fleet of Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (LDUUVs) with diverse capabilities,” DIU said in a release.

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