Special Forces Underwater Operations

Last updated
Diver Badge (USN).jpg
Military Scuba Diver Badge, retired in 2004
SFDiver.PNG
Current Army Special Operations Diver Badge

Special Forces Underwater Operations (SFUWO) is the term for United States Army Special Forces combat operations involving the use of underwater infiltration methods. These typically involve the use of closed circuit dive equipment to infiltrate a beach landing site (BLS) undetected. [1] The US Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets have been conducting maritime operations and underwater operations since their founding in 1952. Currently, each company within a Special Forces Group mans, trains, equips, and deploys a SFUWO Operation Detachment Alpha (SFOD-A). These twelve-man teams train for SFUWO as their primary infiltration method when conducting one of their missions of unconventional warfare, direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, among others.

Contents

Special Forces Underwater Operations School

The US Army Special Forces founded the Special Forces Underwater Operations School in Trumbo Point Annex, Naval Air Station Key West, in 1964. [5] Prior to that SF Detachment-Alphas were receiving disparate levels of dive training at their respective groups. SFUWO makes up C Company of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel have previously attended the Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC), the seven week course that trains special operators to conduct SFUWO in a combat environment. [5] With a cadre of instructors primarily made up of Army Special Forces, along with a smaller number of Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, and Air Force pararescuemen and combat controllers, CDQC was formerly a standard part of the Air Force pararescue and combat control training pipelines (prior to the opening of the USAF Combat Diver Course in Panama City, FL), and both Tactical Air Control Party and Special Reconnaissance (formerly Special Operations Weather Teams) have also attended CDQC to become qualified in special warfare maritime operations.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Navy SEALs</span> U.S. Navy special operations force

The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. SEAL team personnel are hand-selected, highly trained, and possess a high degree of proficiency in unconventional warfare (UW), direct action (DA), and special reconnaissance (SR), among other tasks like sabotage, demolition, intelligence gathering, and hydro-graphic reconnaissance, training, and advising friendly militaries or other forces. All active SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frogman</span> Tactical scuba diver

A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, combatant diver, or combat swimmer. The word frogman first arose in the stage name the "Fearless Frogman" of Paul Boyton in the 1870s and later was claimed by John Spence, an enlisted member of the U.S. Navy and member of the OSS Maritime Unit, to have been applied to him while he was training in a green waterproof suit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Naval Special Warfare Command</span> Naval component of United States Special Operations Command

The United States Naval Special Warfare Command (USNSWC), also known as NAVSPECWARCOM and WARCOM, is the naval component of United States Special Operations Command, the unified command that oversees and conducts the nation's special operations and missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniform Service Diver Insignia (United States)</span> Qualification badges of the uniformed services of the USA

The diver insignia are qualification badges of the uniformed services of the United States which are awarded to servicemen qualified as divers. Originally, the diver insignia was a cloth patch decoration worn by United States Navy divers in the upper-portion of the enlisted service uniform's left sleeve during the first part of World War II, when the rating insignia was worn on the right sleeve. When enlisted rating insignia were shifted to the left sleeve in late World War II, the patch shifted to the upper right sleeve. The diving patch was created during World War II, and became a breast insignia in the late 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Diving Unit (Singapore)</span> Maritime special forces unit

The Naval Diving Unit (NDU), also referred to as the Naval Divers, is the special forces formation of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) responsible for conducting special operations from sea, air, and land. The formation is made up of six squadrons, specialising in explosive ordnance disposal, underwater demolition, maritime security operations, and combatant craft operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearance diver</span> Navy diver specialist with explosives

A clearance diver was originally a specialist naval diver who used explosives underwater to remove obstructions to make harbours and shipping channels safe to navigate, but the term "clearance diver" was later used to include other naval underwater work. Units of clearance divers were first formed during and after World War II to clear ports and harbours in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe of unexploded ordnance and shipwrecks and booby traps laid by the Germans.

Underwater demolition is the deliberate destruction or neutralization of man-made or natural underwater obstacles, both for military and civilian purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian commando frogmen</span> Tactical scuba diving unit

The Russian commando frogmen, informally called "commando frogmen" in civilian media, are a Russian Naval Spetsnaz unit under operational subordination to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). It is the special forces unit of the Russian Naval Infantry and is composed of highly trained and elite marines within the Naval Infantry. By virtue of belonging to the Russian Naval Infantry, frogmen fall under the Coastal Troops of the Russian Navy service arm. The Russian Navy proper does not field any special forces or special operations units. Russian FSB special forces Alpha Group and Vympel also have frogman units in their respective naval components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KOPASKA</span> Indonesian Navy special operations and demolition unit

The Kopaska is the premier frogman and underwater demolition unit of the Indonesian Navy. The unit's motto is Tan Hana Wighna Tan Sirna. The unit's main duties are underwater demolition, destroying main underwater installations, reconnaissance, prisoner snatches, preparing beaches for larger naval amphibious operations, and counter-terrorism. During peacetime, the unit also deploys a team to serve as security personnel for VIPs and VVIPs. The personnel of Kopaska are recruited from Indonesian Navy seamen. Like other Indonesian special forces, Kopaska is trained to be able to conduct operations in the sea, including underwater, on land and airborne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Warfare Group (Singapore)</span> Military unit

The Special Warfare Group (SWG) is the primary special forces unit of the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) responsible for conducting special operations from sea, air, and land. It is one of six squadrons of the Naval Diving Unit (NDU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minedykkerkommandoen</span> Norwegian Navy clearance diver unit

Minedykkerkommandoen (MDK) or Norwegian Naval EOD Command is a clearance diver group. MDK is subordinate to the Royal Norwegian Navy. MDK is located at Haakonsvern Naval Base in Bergen and Ramsund Naval Base, in vicinity of Harstad.

The Divers Group is the Portuguese Navy's sapper clearance diver unit. It was created in 2004 through the grouping of the several already existing diving subunits, to exercise administrative, logistical and operational control and management, maritime special operations capable, over all diver units and personnel. It groups under a single command, all previously existing Sappers Divers Units and Services.

Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) divers are specialists trained to conduct underwater operations within their respective environmental commands. Divers within the CAF are qualified in sub-categories of diving: Clearance Divers, Search and Rescue Technicians (SRT), Port Inspection Divers (PID), Ship's Team Divers, and Combat Divers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States military divers</span> Underwater divers employed by the US armed forces

The US employs divers in several branches of the armed forces, including the navy, army, marines, air force and coast guard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Air Force Combat Rescue Officer</span> US Air Force officer specializing in combat search and rescue

Combat Rescue Officer (CRO) is a Special Warfare Officer career field in the United States Air Force. Its Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) is 19ZXC and it was created to strengthen USAF Special Warfare personnel recovery capabilities by providing commissioned officer leadership that possessed an operational skillset paralleling that of the enlisted pararescuemen (PJ). The CRO specialty includes direct combatant command and control of Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) operations. They plan, manage and execute the six tasks of CSAR: prepare, report, locate, support, recover, and reintegrate isolated personnel and materiel. CROs conduct strategic, operational and tactical level planning, provide battle staff expertise, manage theater personnel recovery operations and conduct combat special operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Task and Rescue</span> Malaysian Coast Guards Special Operations Command

The Special Task and Rescue Team, abbreviated as STAR, serves as the command for elite maritime special operations and underwater divers within the Malaysia Coast Guard. It was established as a rapid reaction force for emergencies within the maritime zone of Malaysia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army engineer diver</span> Armed forces occupation

Army engineer divers are members of national armies who are trained to undertake tasks underwater, including reconnaissance, demolition, and salvage. These divers have similar skills and qualifications as professional divers. Army divers use both surface supplied "Hard hat" and SCUBA to perform their missions. In the United States Army, they are members of the Corps of Engineers. In the British Army, they may be Royal Engineer Divers or Commando Engineer Divers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Air Force Combat Dive Course</span> Military unit

The United States Air Force Combat Diver Course—administratively known as the 350th Battlefield Airmen Training Squadron, Det 2—is held at the Navy Diving Salvage and Training Center, Naval Support Activity Panama City and trains Pararescuemen, Combat Rescue Officers, Combat Controllers, and Special Tactics Officers to conduct and participate in special operations diving missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion</span> Military unit

The 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, known as the Sea Dragon Frogmen; not to be confused with other frogman unit within the ROC Armed Forces which is the Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol Unit of the Republic of China Marine Corps, is a SCUBA trained combat swimming & diving as well as underwater demolitions focused special operations forces of the Republic of China Army.

References

  1. "FM-3-05-212 Special Forces Waterborne Operations". US Army APD. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 "The Big Picture," Pictorial Report No. 29, TV-372; U.S. Army; courtesy of PublicResourceOrg; circa 1956; last accessed 28 November 2022
  3. "OSS Maritime Unit". OSS Maritime Unit. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  4. "Christian Lambertsen and the Secret Story Behind Scuba". CIA Library. Central Intelligence Agency Library. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  5. 1 2 Crippen, Linda. "Combat Diver Qualification Course challenges Special Forces". US ARMY. US ARMY TRADOC. Retrieved 3 May 2019.