To help illustrate some of the tradeoff decisions that might be made with undersea mobility platforms, he speculated that UOES 2 would offer approximately 75 percent of the capabilities of ASDS in terms of payload and people at a cost of just $22.7 million.
Cautioning that the earlier ASDS program had been hampered by being “both the prototype and the first vehicle,” he quickly added that the UOES vehicles provide the “luxury” of true prototypes that can be studied and explored prior to decisions on a future operational platform.
The third DCS prototype, UOES 3, is being manufactured by General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation and built at GSE Trieste (Bergamo, Italy). The vessel measures 31.7 feet in length by 6.32 feet in beam by 6.32 feet high, and will be able to carry four SOF passengers and two SOF pilots at a maximum speed greater than 9 knots.
Green said that the UOES 3 design was driven by NSW guidance and that they might like to eventually work a future design “back into a Dry Deck Shelter [DDS]” if they could extend the current DDS design by 100 inches.
A member of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team Two (SDVT-2) prepares to launch one of the team’s SEAL Delivery Vehicles (SDV) from the back of the Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Philadelphia (SSN 690) on a training exercise. The SDVs are used to carry Navy SEALs from a submerged submarine to enemy targets while staying underwater and undetected. The current inventory of SDVs is down to 11 boats. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Photographer’s Mate Andrew McKaskle
There are six DDS in the NSW inventory. The Navy has previously built a 50-inch “extension ring” for its DDS, but designers reportedly now see 100 inches as the largest extension that could conceivably fit on the aft deck of a Virginia-class submarine without hampering its operations.
The UOES 3 prototype is currently scheduled to arrive for government acceptance in October 2014. As with acceptance testing on UOES 2, that phase will probably last about six months at Panama City, Fla., during which the NSW community will begin to ascertain whether the down-scoped design specs are sufficient or whether additional competition might be required.
Now approaching their 20-year service mark, the idea has been to replace the MK 8 MOD 1 SDVs with a new Shallow Water Combatant Submersible (SWCS) that will be designated as the MK 11.
Based on the successful completion of all testing and explorations, Green and other NSW planners are currently projecting an IOC for a near-term operational DCS platform as early as FY 18. Acknowledging that the current prototype designs will not fit on U.S. submarine platforms, he added that a longer-term NSW goal might be to place a DCS capability “back aboard submarines” sometime in the 2020s.
“We do think these designs are scalable,” he offered. “What we have yet to define is that ‘iron triangle’ that balances the ability to place a craft inside a Dry Deck Shelter versus tradeoffs in internal payload or operational range.”
NSW undersea capabilities also include the “wet boat” designs epitomized in the MK 8 MOD 1 SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV). The current inventory of SDVs is down to 11 boats, from a peak of 14.
A SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) is loaded aboard the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Dallas (SSN 700), Feb. 6, 2006. A Dry Deck Shelter (DDS) is attached to the submarine’s rear escape trunk to provide a dry environment for Navy Seals to prepare for special warfare exercises or operations. NSW is working to make a new MK 11 Shallow Water Combatant Submersible (SWCS) fit within the existing DDS. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Journalist Dave Fliesen
Now approaching their 20-year service mark, the idea has been to replace the MK 8 MOD 1 SDVs with a new Shallow Water Combatant Submersible (SWCS) that will be designated as the MK 11.
The purpose of SWCS had been twofold. The first was a major technology refreshment to reflect two decades of advances since the MK 8 MOD 1, even though Green acknowledged “some very interesting modifications that have successfully been done to the SDVs over the last couple of years.” The second purpose focuses on greater payload.
He added that the struggle has been that the SWCS is “about a foot longer and about a foot wider” than the current MK 8 MOD 1, yet it still needs to fit inside a submarine deck-mounted DDS. The resulting “really tight fit” has prompted a series of required shelter modifications that did not involve the pressure hull, but did move certain piping and hydraulic subsystems around the DDS.
Although there has been some program “slippage to the right,” an NSW mock-up of the new SWCS design was recently proven with a group of SEALs and near-term plans call for the building of an Engineering Development Model (EDM).
That SWCS EDM is being built by Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Ala., with current plans calling for delivery of that prototype around the end of this year; timing that is coincident with the anticipated arrival of the third DCS prototype.
Looking toward the future, Green pointed to an upcoming effort that has been submitted for POM (Program Objective Memorandum) funding to conduct R&D on the DDS, focusing on lengthening the shelter and automating some of the operational subsystems. Co-funded with the Navy, the project would also include some modifications to the Virginia-class submarines that would allow them to accept the larger DDS. If approved, that work will be performed in the FY 16-FY 18 time frame, which also sets the stage for the stated longer-range desire to place DCS capabilities back onto a submarine in the 2020s.
This article was first published in The Year in Special Operations: 2014-2015 Edition.