A dry deck shelter (DDS) is a removable module that can be attached to a submarine to allow divers easy exit and entrance while the boat is submerged. The host submarine must be specially modified to accommodate the DDS, with the appropriate mating hatch configuration, electrical connections, and piping for ventilation, [1] divers' air, and draining water. The DDS can be used to deploy a SEAL Delivery Vehicle submersible, Navy divers, or Combat Rubber Raiding Craft (CRRC). [2]
In UK service it is formally named the Special Forces Payload Bay (SFPB) and was procured under ‘Project Chalfont’. [3] [4] Training is conducted at the purpose-built Chalfont Shore Facility (CSF) constructed by BAE Systems at HMNB Clyde. It is used by the Astute-class submarine.
The United States Navy's DDSs are 38 feet (12 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) high and wide, add about 30 tons to its host submarine's submerged displacement, can be transported by trucks or C-5 Galaxy airplanes, and require one to three days to install and test. They have three HY-80 steel sections within the outer glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) fairing: a spherical hyperbaric chamber at the forward end to treat injured divers; a smaller spherical transfer trunk; [5] and a cylindrical hangar with elliptical ends. The hangar can support a SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) submersible, six Navy SEALs to man the SDV, and a crew of Navy Divers to operate the DDS and launch the SDV; or 20 SEALs with four Combat Rubber Raiding Craft (CRRC). [2] The SDV release team consists of 2 officers, 2 enlisted technicians, and 18 divers. [6]
The two SEAL delivery vehicle teams report to Naval Special Warfare Group 3. [7]
There are currently six portable dry deck shelters in use by the USN, the first one built by Electric Boat. The first, designated DDS-01S ("S" for starboard opening outer door), was completed in 1982. The remaining five, DDS-02P ("P" for port opening), -03P, -04S, -05S, and -06P, were built between 1987 and 1991 and were built by Newport News Shipbuilding. [8] The shelters are maintained by a combined effort of Navy divers stationed on the teams and workers of the maintenance company Oceaneering International. [9] [10] They have expected useful lives of about 40 years each. [2]
The first submarine to have an operational dry deck shelter was the USS Cavalla, which was fitted with the DDS in 1982 and first deployed with it in 1983. [11] It is deployed on the Virginia-class submarine, [2] the Los Angeles-class submarine, [12] the Seawolf-class submarine:, [13] and the Ohio-class submarine. [14] The Ohio-class SSGNs are capable of supporting dual dry deck shelters. [14]
Former US Navy DDS-capable submarines include:
Ethan Allen-class submarine: [15]
Sturgeon-class submarine: [15]
Benjamin Franklin-class submarine:
Note: The Benjamin Franklin-class special operations attack submarines were capable of supporting dual dry deck shelters. [16]
Five Permit-class submarines were also fitted to carry the DDS. [11]
The Ohio class of nuclear-powered submarines includes the United States Navy's 14 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) and its four cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). Each displacing 18,750 tons submerged, the Ohio-class boats are the largest submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy. They are also the third-largest submarines ever built, behind the Russian Navy's Soviet era 48,000-ton Typhoon class, the last of which was retired in 2023, and 24,000-ton Borei class. Capable of carrying 24 Trident II missiles apiece, the Ohio class are equipped with just as many missiles as, if not more than, either the Borei class (16) or the deactivated Typhoon class (20).
The Sturgeon class was a class of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines (SSN) in service with the United States Navy from the 1960s until 2004. They were the "workhorses" of the Navy's attack submarine fleet throughout much of the Cold War. The boats were phased out in the 1990s and early 21st century, as their successors, the Los Angeles, followed by the Seawolf and Virginia-class boats, entered service.
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.
USS Michigan (SSBN-727/SSGN-727) is an Ohio-class nuclear-powered guided missile submarine (SSGN), converted from a ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), that is part of the United States Navy. She is the third vessel to bear the name of the U.S. state of Michigan.
USS Halibut (SSGN-587), a unique nuclear-powered guided missile submarine-turned-special operations platform, later redesignated as an attack submarine SSN-587, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the halibut.
USS Los Angeles (SSN-688), lead ship of her class of submarines, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for Los Angeles, California. The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia on 8 January 1971 and her keel was laid down on 8 January 1972. She was launched on 6 April 1974 sponsored by Anne Armstrong, and commissioned on 13 November 1976. She hosted President Jimmy Carter and the First Lady on 27 May 1977 for an at-sea demonstration of her capabilities. In 2007 she was the oldest submarine in active service with the United States Navy. The Navy decommissioned Los Angeles on 23 January 2010, in the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, her namesake city.
A diver propulsion vehicle (DPV), also known as an underwater propulsion vehicle, sea scooter, underwater scooter, or swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) by armed forces, is an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers to increase range underwater. Range is restricted by the amount of breathing gas that can be carried, the rate at which that breathing gas is consumed, and the battery power of the DPV. Time limits imposed on the diver by decompression requirements may also limit safe range in practice. DPVs have recreational, scientific and military applications.
A midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, from which they are launched and recovered and which provide living accommodation for the crew and support staff.
The SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) is a crewed submersible and a type of swimmer delivery vehicle used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions. It is operated by SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams.
USS L. Mendel Rivers (SSN-686), a Sturgeon-class attack submarine in commission from 1975 to 2001, is the only ship of the United States Navy thus far to have been named for L. Mendel Rivers (1905–1970), a U.S. Representative from South Carolina's 1st Congressional District (1941–1970).
USS Cavalla (SSN-684), a Sturgeon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cavalla, a salt water fish. Although it was a Sturgeon class design, Cavalla was a modified "long hull" boat, approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) longer than the earlier ships in its class.
There are three major types of submarines in the United States Navy: ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines, and cruise missile submarines. All submarines currently in the U.S. Navy are nuclear-powered. Ballistic missile submarines have a single strategic mission of carrying nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Attack submarines have several tactical missions, including sinking ships and subs, launching cruise missiles, and gathering intelligence. Cruise missile submarines perform many of the same missions as attack submarines, but with a focus on their ability to carry and launch larger quantities of cruise missiles than typical attack submarines.
A diving chamber is a vessel for human occupation, which may have an entrance that can be sealed to hold an internal pressure significantly higher than ambient pressure, a pressurised gas system to control the internal pressure, and a supply of breathing gas for the occupants.
The Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) was a midget submarine operated by the United States Navy and United States Special Operations Command. It provided stealthy submerged transportation for United States Navy SEALs from the decks of nuclear submarines for use as an insertion platform for covert and clandestine special operations missions. The ASDS was canceled in 2009 due to cost overruns and reliability issues, after the prototype was destroyed in a fire in 2008. As of 2019, the Navy plans to replace the ASDS with the Dry Combat Submersible, a similar midget submarine being developed by Lockheed Martin.
A wet sub is a type of underwater vehicle, either a submarine or a submersible, that does not provide a dry environment for its occupants. It is also described as an underwater vehicle where occupants are exposed to ambient environment during operations. The watercraft is classified as medium-sized or small vessel. This type of submarine differs from other underwater personal transport devices by the fact that it has a hull around it and it is not a "bare bones" design.
Seawolf Park is a memorial to USS Seawolf (SS-197), a United States Navy Sargo-class submarine mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy forces in 1944 during World War II. It is located on Pelican Island, just north of Galveston, Texas, in the United States. The park has two museum ships, submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244) and a destroyer escort, along with parts from three other vessels and offshore the remains of a former merchant ship. Other activities at the park include a picnic area and fishing.
Naval Special Warfare Group 3 (NSWG-3), based at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California, was one of six constituent formations of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command. Until 2008, NSWG-3 was composed of two SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams: SDVT-1 in Pearl Harbor and SDVT-2 in Little Creek. In 2008, SDVT-2 was disestablished and merged into SDVT-1, which was then now headquartered in Pearl Harbor and operated detachments in Pearl Harbor and Little Creek. SDV Teams are SEAL teams with an added underwater delivery capability. SDVT-2 was reactivated on 8 March 2019. NSWG-3 was deactivated alongside NSWG-10 in August 2021 and replaced by Naval Special Warfare Group 8 which took in all units previously under NSWG-3 and NSWG-10.
Oceaneering International, Inc. is a subsea engineering and applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments.
The Shallow Water Combat Submersible (SWCS) is a crewed submersible and a type of swimmer delivery vehicle that is planned to be used to deliver United States Navy SEALs and their equipment for special operations missions. It will replace the current Mark 8 SEAL Delivery Vehicle. The Navy planned to introduce the SWCS in 2018, although "slippage in the development" has delayed its introduction until 2019. In 2020, the U.S. Navy stated that it was undergoing sea trials and testing. As of October 2018, two subs have been delivered to the Navy while another two were in production. The SWCS will serve alongside the Dry Combat Submersible (DCS), a midget submarine with a dry interior being developed by Lockheed Martin as a replacement for the cancelled Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS).
The Dry Combat Submersible (DCS) is a midget submarine delivered to USSOCOM by Lockheed Martin.
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