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Manta Ray UUV prototype completes in-water testing
- heyflyguy 2y agoThere was a giant NOTAM in the pacific a few weeks ago. The title of the TFR was "MUTANT MEGALODON". A1396 I am curious if these two things were related.
- dylan604 2y agoI am and am not at the same time surprised that humor is allowed in this mode of communications.
- IncreasePosts 2y agoWhy would airmen need to know about a submersible?
- timdiggerm 2y agobecause they don't want anyone observing the testing
- quercusa 2y agoSomebody on X caught it: https://twitter.com/SeanMoodyNews/status/1776676474407297224 https://twitter.com/SeanMoodyNews/status/1776676474407297224
- Scene_Cast2 2y agoI wonder why it needs wings underwater.
- ceejayoz 2y agoSame reason fish, marine mammals, submarines etc. need fins.
- hamandchris 2y agoSomething about this? “Once deployed, the vehicle uses efficient, buoyancy-driven gliding to move through the water..." Sounds like it gets around by changing buoyancy, which is pretty cool and also probably completely silent.
- zardo 2y agoThe real benefit is it works well with harvesting energy for propulsion from the depth based thermal gradient.
- causal 2y agoIt's still much wider-bodied than any glider I've seen. I'm guessing this is because of the need for larger payload bays.
- ryanisnan 2y agoThe answer is probably explosives, but are there other payloads you think this thing might carry? Comms? SIG-INT equipment?
- causal 2y agoGiven the autonomous nature I'd be surprised if it were used offensively anytime soon, so I'd guess the latter.
- marcosdumay 2y agoYou don't need as much wing-area underwater as you need on the air.
- EA-3167 2y agoThe same reason that rays and skates have wings, they're useful in any fluid medium, even when they aren't generating lift.
- krisoft 2y ago> even when they aren't generating lift. Yes. But these do generate lift. This is basically an underwater glider[1]. It can change it's buoyancy which would make it sink/raise straight down/up. It uses then its wings to turn this vertical speed into horizontal propulsion. It basically flies underwater in a sawtooth pattern (when seen in a side view). This is a very energy efficient way to go the distance. These machines can loiter for months on a single charge typically. They only need to spend energy on the top and bottom points of their vertical swoops to change their buoyancy. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_glider
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sigzero 2y agoTo look like a manta ray?
- jfaulken 2y agoI read that as "Manta Ray Unscrewed ..." and could not process the rest of the sentence. Are manta rays attacking underwater vehicles now?
- 0x457 2y agoGlad I'm not the only one. Tooke me awhile to figure out.
- pineaux 2y agoSame here
- alistairSH 2y agoSame. I had to read your comment and title several times each before it clicked.
- manuelkehl 2y agoCame here to write a comment along those same lines haha
- nielsbot 2y agoSame. I was like "oh, so we have caterpillar drive in real life now?" (assuming screw = propeller)
- shitpostbot 2y ago[dead]
- aaroninsf 2y agoI wonder if there is a name for garden-path sentences which emerge from mis-reading or typos; or, more interestingly perhaps, a name for a garden path candidate sentence—which is being optimistically projected during reading—forcing a misreading. An interesting sort of confirmation bias, which it is easy to interpret as "pressure from more abstract model layers, informing the word recognition layer"...
- erikig 2y agoI was wondering how this UUV was powered and all that DARPA was willing to divulge was "Novel energy management techniques" and "undersea energy harvesting" [1]. Anyone have any insights? [1] https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-05-01 https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-05-01
- causal 2y agoI saw an Instagram Reel where someone claimed it could loiter on the seabed for extended periods powered by geothermal, but that sounds pretty fanciful to me.
- runjake 2y agoThis is an inaccurate take. It loiters on the bottom in an energy-efficient sleep mode. Separately, it collects small amounts of energy via geothermal means similar to something like regenerative braking. This, of course, allows it to sleep for longer periods.
- causal 2y agoThat definitely makes more sense but where did you learn this?
- runjake 2y agoFrom both a defense publication article, written by the Program Manager, Kyle Woerner, and reading up on the company purportedly behind the geothermal research. They go into a bit more detail. If I can find online links, I’ll post a follow up comment with them.
- petesergeant 2y agoWarThunder forums[0] 0: https://www.eurogamer.net/war-thunder-players-leak-military-documents-on-forums-again https://www.eurogamer.net/war-thunder-players-leak-military-...
- zardo 2y ago
- patrickhogan1 2y agoThis thing is giant I wonder what a whale will do to this.
- jeffbee 2y agoIt appears to be "giant" in the way that a small private airplane is "giant". It is larger than a sandwich but significantly smaller than all other underwater craft.
- nick7376182 2y agoLooks a decent bit bigger than a Cessna
- grogenaut 2y agohttps://www.viator.com/North-America-tours/Submarine-Tours/d8-g3-c67 https://www.viator.com/North-America-tours/Submarine-Tours/d.... Looks as big or bigger than all of these
- josefresco 2y agoAnother article on this: https://www.twz.com/news-features/manta-ray-underwater-drone-even-more-enormous-than-we-thought https://www.twz.com/news-features/manta-ray-underwater-drone... Title: Manta Ray Underwater Drone Even More Enormous Than We Thought
- causal 2y agoBiggest issue for AUVs is how water attenuates radio, meaning this will have to surface to phone home. Guessing it will mostly be used for surveillance.
- tiahura 2y agoGiven its size, it could hold a number of cheap small satellite communicators (ie garmin inreach) that could be deployed to slowly float to the surface and phone home as needed.
- lupusreal 2y agoBouyant antenna cables are old tech, no need for the entire craft to surface.
- ranger207 2y agoAlthough the US (allegedly) no longer operates them, they (and Russia and China) have used extremely low frequency communications stations spread out over miles to communicate with submerged submarines. Tensions are much lower now so submarines can take the risk of surfacing for communications checkins but I'm sure that the ELF stations could be recomissioned fairly quickly if the need arose
- jandrewrogers 2y agoBy all accounts the Jim Creek Naval Radio Station [0] in Washington State is still active and operational. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Creek_Naval_Radio_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Creek_Naval_Radio_Station
- 01100011 2y agoJim Creek is VLF, which is well above ELF frequencies.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- lupusreal 2y agoHeh, kinda looks like Arsenal Gear.
- pineaux 2y agoThis thing is going to be absolutely encrusted with barnacles af some point. How cool is that?
- mc32 2y agoThat's going to be a drag.
- 082349872349872 2y agoWhen there's no crew to keelhaul, why even bother with the barnacles?
- jtriangle 2y agoNavy has very, very good antifouling tech. It'll be far less of a problem than you'd think.
- bitlevel 2y agoSaw the headline, immediately thought of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Seaview and the smaller Manta craft. Fewer humans onboard though...
- erksa 2y ago> Manta Ray vehicle being towed in preparation for testing Find it funny that they have to tow the prototype for some reason. Good to know DARPA also releases half-done prototypes. Lighthearted fun this morning, and not to be taken serious.
- knowaveragejoe 2y agoEvery prototype of anything large like this would be towed around, why would this be different?
- its_ethan 2y agoI know it's pointless pedantry and there's no reason to argue it, but aren't prototypes inherently "half-done"? If something was "fully done" it wouldn't really be a prototype anymore, but more of a gen 1.
- luma 2y agoLarge ships regularly leverage tugs to get in and out of harbor, this isn't even a little unusual.
- erksa 2y agoNeither is having a prototype being assisted by external forces when demoing. :D All in good fun and all of this is way outside of my area. It's been exciting to see, just thought it was funny that the first images are the thing being towed.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ItCouldBeWorse 2y agoNot really drone-lego yet, but at least partially modular..
- briandw 2y agoSounds like they are using a [Buoyancy_engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy_engine). The large wings are there to provide efficient forward motion when going up or down the water column.
- holoduke 2y agoI always wonder how these aircraft deal with sea life and debris. The first 0 to 20 meters of sea is the most dense populated zone in the world. How do you deal with collisions? I think therefor this will never be a success.
- dylan604 2y agoWhat the huh? This has to be a joke, yeah? Those things in the sea move out of the way when things that appear threatening move through the area. Why would this be any different to that? Or to any other man made vessel in that same area. I only typed this out in case you're having a brain fart, otherwise I really feel like there should be cameras around like I'm being punk'd.
- zardo 2y agoCatching floating kelp would be a real concern. I doubt the plan is to spend much time near the surface though.
- dgfitz 2y agoHave you ever tried to catch a sea-faring animal, with your hands, or a fishing rod, or a net?
- neeleshs 2y agoUUV (Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle) is a meh acronym. CrewL(l)ess Underwater Boat would've given them CLUB or CUB!
- Razengan 2y agoCarrier Command (1988) can finally be a reality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_Command https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_Command
- dvh 2y agoWhy it needs vertical control surface? Why manta ray don't need one?
- tambre 2y agoI'm guessing, but manta rays are flexible and can form vertical surfaces by how their wings flop. Or maybe they just can flop their wings different amounts to generate differing thrust for turning. Neither is possible with todays technology. Adding a vertical control surface is a pretty easy solution though.
- braymundo 2y agoMajor X-COM: Terror from the Deep vibes.
- mattmaroon 2y agoI feel like at some point, UUVs will be able to disable one part of the nuclear triad. A submarine with nuclear warheads is such a big ticket item that no country can reasonably have a lot of them. The US has 14, Russia 11. The entire world fleet is probably in the 30s. A UUV that can find one and follow it indefinitely could be able to neutralize it and would be, presumably, much cheaper and easier to build. How hard could it be to eventually find and track every ballistic missile submarine with them? I’m sure there are things I’m not understanding (how communications work, whether such a sub would be able to launch ICBMs even after being torpedoed, etc.) but it seems like this should have major strategic ramifications eventually.
- chatmasta 2y agoI think what you’re missing is that a nuclear submarine wouldn’t let a UUV “follow it indefinitely.” Also, the submarine can have its own fleet of UUVs.
- mattmaroon 2y agoPossibly. Everyone so far since the advent of nukes has generally abided by not shooting each other’s surveillance down in international territory (water, space, etc.) But perhaps that would change if UUVs are following subs. Also I suppose the sub could re-enter its own coastal waters and then do it too, much as we shot down China’s spy balloon.
- gattr 2y agoThat, and also, as pointed out in e.g [1], a "boomer" submarine can launch all its SLBMs in 60-90 s. Faster than it could be torpedoed. And even if you manage to disable it very quickly, just a few launched missiles mean multiple times that number of warheads (MIRV). [1] Annie Jacobsen, "Nuclear War: A Scenario"
- credit_guy 2y ago> A UUV that can find one and follow it indefinitely Maybe it could find one but it can't follow it indefinitely if it is powered by a non-nuclear engine.
- hcarvalhoalves 2y agoManta Ray… Unmanned Vehicles… DARPA… Is this Metal Gear?