SOCOM Is Engaged on a New and Improved Navy SEAL Supply Car

To stay efficient in an period of near-peer warfare and to counter China’s rising army, US Particular Operations Command and the Navy SEALs are engaged on two new and improved mini-submarines which are anticipated to enter service quickly.

The 2 new special-operations mini-subs — the Mark 11 Shallow Water Fight Submersible and the Dry Fight Submersible — would be the spine of Naval Particular Warfare’s submersible fleet for many years to return.

The Mark 11 will exchange the Mark 8 Mod 1 mini-sub. The brand new mini-sub comes with an elevated operational vary and payload, extra superior sensors, improved navigation methods, and a brand new command-and-control construction that can permit new applied sciences to be launched extra effectively.

At 23 ft lengthy, the Mark 11 will have the ability to carry six Navy SEALs: two crew and 4 fight divers. The mini-sub shall be to dive to about 165 ft and shall be flooded whereas in use, which means the SEAL operators shall be uncovered to the weather and must use dry fits and oxygen tanks. (The British Particular Boat Service has additionally ordered the Mark 11.)

SOCOM expects the Mark 11 to hit preliminary working functionality this summer season. Ought to all the pieces go in keeping with plan, the brand new SEAL Supply Car will start to section out the Mark 8, which has been in service because the Eighties.

The Dry Fight Submersible is way bigger and heavier. The 40-foot mini-submarine can have a vastly longer operational vary and better payload capability than the Mark 11 and be extra snug for the ten commandos — two crew and eight fight divers — it will likely be capable of carry.

At a latest business convention, Cmdr. John Conway, SOCOM’s program supervisor for special-operations forces undersea methods, likened the Dry Fight Submersible to “an electrical truck” that may do plenty of issues on the identical time and might be tailored and improved with new sensors and methods in response to future threats and operational environments.

Naval Particular Warfare can also be “different nontraditional methods to launch” the Mark 11, similar to “a containerized resolution” off of “some vessel of alternative or issues like that,” Navy Cmdr. James Hanlon, SOCOM’s program supervisor for special-operations maritime methods, mentioned on the convention, in keeping with Protection News.

Along with the brand new Mark 11 and Dry Fight Submersible, Naval Particular Warfare is engaged on a service-life extension program for the Dry Deck Shelter, which is hooked up to a submarine’s hull and permits SEALs and different fight divers to exit and enter the submarine whereas underway.

The Navy’s six Dry Deck Shelters have been constructed between 1982 and 1991 and have been anticipated to have service lives of 40 years. The deliberate extension would permit them to function till the 2050s

The Navy SEAL group’s secret

The Navy SEAL groups are most well-known for his or her direct-action capabilities. Excessive-profile operations over the past 20 years, together with the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, have fostered a perception that each one that SEALs do is kick down doorways and go after dangerous guys.

However SEAL groups have different capabilities and are proficient in lots of ability units. The SEAL Supply Autos are maybe considered one of their most unique capabilities, and the 2 SEAL Supply Car groups specialise in three mission units: underwater insertion and extraction of particular operations troops, underwater particular reconnaissance, and underwater particular operations.

As well as, SEAL Supply Car groups can help maritime counterterrorism operations by stealthily shifting particular operators near a goal that’s in or close to the water.

Usually, SEAL operators keep away from an task to a SEAL Supply Car group due to the extraordinarily troublesome mission set. Though all Navy SEALs are fight divers, SEAL Supply Car group members take fight diving to the following degree. Eight- to 10-hour dives are usually not unusual.

Naval Particular Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs, has two supply automobile groups, which have been first stood up within the early Eighties.

SEAL Supply Car Staff One, now primarily based in Hawaii, is devoted to the West Coast and operations within the Pacific. SEAL Supply Car Staff Two was deactivated in 2008 however reestablished in 2019 amid the shift towards great-power competitors. SDVT-2 relies in Little Creek, Virginia, and is the devoted supply automobile unit for the East Coast and operations in Europe.

The supply automobile groups at the moment are a part of Naval Particular Warfare Group 8, which was created in 2020 via the consolidation of two different particular warfare teams. The officer who led the group with the supply automobile groups was chosen to steer Group 8 when it was fashioned, suggesting SDVs can have an necessary position going ahead.

SEAL Supply Autos are SOCOM’s solely special-operations submersible functionality. In a battle with China, mini-subs paired with the Navy’s assault submarines can be ideally suited for getting SEALs into robust spots and denied areas, which shall be important for countering China’s anti-access/area-denial umbrella over the Western Pacific.

“Our relationship with our submarine pressure has by no means been nearer,” Rear Adm. Hugh Howard III, commander of Naval Particular Warfare Command, advised senators in Could. “We see the undersea as completely important to deterrence. I believe that it’s a place that we preserve benefit, and it’s a place the place we should preserve benefit to critically deter our peer adversaries.”