Mysterious DARPA drone spotted off Waikiki

WAIKIKI (KHON2) — Some fishermen off of Waikiki were surprised when they spotted a catch that they didn’t expect to find.

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Max Bishop and Casey Carter spotted an unmanned drone floating in the ocean about two miles off Kewalo Basin Harbor on Friday, August 30.

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that a Department of Defense agency is responsible for the in-water drone.

Bishop first thought that the equipment was a capsized boat when he first spotted it off of Waikiki.

“And as we got closer, it started to not look like a boat anymore, you know. And we pull up alongside it and it looked like a, like a small aircraft,” Bishop said. “Maybe 30, 35 feet long, could tell it was a, like a UAV, I did four years in the Marine Corps too, so yeah, I’ve seen some of that.”

UAV’s are unmanned aerial vehicles — the fishermen reported the drone to the U.S. Coast Guard, which said in a statement:

“ Yes, we did receive a report on this matter. We broadcast it on the radio this morning, and PACMAR Technologies, the owner of the drone, confirmed that it belongs to them. The drone is an in-water research drone developed for DARPA. Their website offers an in-depth look at their work, and I highly recommend visiting it—it’s fascinating and quite unique.

Additionally, the drone is no longer in the water as the owner retrieved it this morning.”

United States Coast Guard – Sector Honolulu

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) researches military-grade weapons like high-energy laser technologies, hypersonic missiles and completed testing on this in-water Manta Ray prototype drone in May, 2024.

PacMar Technologies confirmed to KHON2 that the equipment off of Waikiki is a government research drone that did not have weapons onboard, but the company could not disclose any other information to the public.

“I was thinking it might have been like, you know, a NOAA drone or something, like some sort of civilian research. Not necessarily like, Department of Defense or anything like that,” Bishop said. “I mean, we were joking once we knew there was no, no people in distress, you know, I was kind of, like, ‘Woah, we could tow this back, put it on Craigslist or something, you know?'”

KHON2 is waiting to hear back from DARPA to see if any more information can be shared about the drone, how much the drone is worth, how it malfunctioned and what exactly it was allegedly researching around the Islands.